As a general rule, the Office will not issue separate registrations for the source code and object code versions of the same program. However, if a program has been registered in unpublished form based on a submission of source code, the Office may register the first published version of the same program based on a submission of object code, even if the published version "is substantially the same as the unpublished version." 17 U.S.C. § 408(e); 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b)(ll)(i).
For details concerning the deposit requirements for registering a computer program based on a submission of object code, see Chapter 1500, Section 1509.1(C)(6).
721.6 Relationship Between a Computer Program and a Work Created with a Computer or a Computer Program
The ownership of the copyright in a work of authorship, or of any of the exclusive rights under a copyright, is distinct from the ownership of any material object in which the work has been fixed. A transfer of ownership of a material object does not convey any rights in the work, nor does the transfer of ownership of a copyright convey property rights in any material object (absent a written agreement to that effect). 17 U.S.C. § 202.
Likewise, ownership of the copyright in a work is distinct from ownership of any material object that may be used to create that work. The fact that the author used a computer to write an article, short story, or other nondramatic literary work does not mean that the work is a computer program. The fact that the author saved his or her work onto a hard drive, flash drive, thumb drive, CD-ROM, or other electronic storage device does not mean that the work is a computer program. A work only qualifies as a computer program if it contains "a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certain result." 17 U.S.C. § 101 (definition of "computer program"). Moreover, elements of a work created by a computer program, such as formatting codes generated by a word processing program, are not claimable in a work.
721.7 Copyrightable Authorship in a Computer Program
A computer program may be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office if it contains a sufficient amount of original authorship in the form of statements or instructions to a computer.
Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act "makefs] clear that the expression adopted by the programmer is the copyrightable element in a computer program, and that the actual processes or methods embodied in the program are not within the scope of the copyright law." H.R. Rep. 94-1476, at 57 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.AN. at 5670; S. Rep. No. 94-473, at 54 (1975). As a general rule, the Office does not distinguish between executable code and nonexecuting comments or data that may appear in the source code for a computer program. Either element may support a claim to copyright if the program contains a sufficient amount of original statements or instructions. See Registration of Claims to Copyright Deposit Requirements for Computer Programs Containing Trade Secrets and for Computer Screen Displays, 54 Fed. Reg. 13,173, 13,174 n.2 (Mar. 31, 1989); see also Registration Decision: Registration and Deposit of Computer Screen Displays, 53 Fed. Reg. 21,817, 21,819 (June 10, 1988). To register a claim in executable code, the applicant should state "computer program" in the application. The applicant
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