• The combined works must bear a single title identifying the collection as a whole;
• The copyright claimant(s) in all of the works, and in the collection as a whole, must be the same; and
• All of the works must be by the same author; or, if they are by different authors, at least one author must contribute copyrightable authorship to each element.
37 C.F.R.§ 202.3(b) [4] (i)(B).
Works that do not satisfy these requirements cannot be registered as an unpublished collection, and the registration specialist will communicate with the applicant if it appears that these conditions have not been met.
To register an unpublished collection of sound recordings and/or musical works, the applicant should list the individual titles and name the author(s) of those works. If there has been no transfer of ownership, the applicant should name the author(s) as the copyright claimant(s).
A group of works may be registered as an unpublished collection if the copyright in the works is owned by the same party and if an author contributed copyrightable authorship to all of the works. However, a separate application for each work will be required if the ownership of the copyrights is not the same or if there does not appear to be an author who contributed authorship to all of the works.
Examples: Multiple works registered as an unpublished collection
• Samantha and Fred create eight sound recordings. (The songs are preexisting.) There has been no transfer of copyright ownership. The sound recordings may be registered together by selecting Sound Recording as the Type of Work or by using Form SR. The applicant should name Samantha and Fred as co-authors of "sound recording" and as co-claimants.
• Michelle writes the lyrics for six songs and sings vocals on the recording; Mark writes the music for the six songs and produces the sound recording. The ownership of copyrights in all six songs and the sound recordings are the same. The songs and sound recordings may be registered together by selecting Sound Recording as the Type of Work or by using Form SR. The applicant should name Michelle and Mark as the authors and co-claimants of the lyrics and music, respectively, and as the co-authors and co-claimants of the "sound recording."
• Sue wrote the music, and Tom wrote the lyrics for ten songs. Sue and Tom then performed these ten songs on a sound recording. There has been no transfer of ownership. Since the ownership of copyright in the songs and the sound recording is the same, the works may be registered with the same application. To register the
Chapter 800 : 50
12/22/2014
