• All of the copyrightable elements that are otherwise recognizable as self-contained works must be unpublished.
• The elements must be assembled in an orderly form.
• The applicant must provide a single title for the collection as a whole.
• All of the elements must be created by the same author, or if the elements were created by multiple authors, at least one of the authors must have contributed copyrightable authorship to each work in the collection.
• The copyright claimant for all of the elements and the collection as a whole must be the same person or organization.
See 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b](4)(i)(B).
Works that do not satisfy these requirements cannot be registered as an unpublished collection.
In particular, an applicant cannot use this option to register a number of published and unpublished works. If any of the works have been published, the applicant should not include those works in the claim. For a definition and discussion of publication, see Chapter 1900.
At the present time, there is no limit on the number of works that may be registered with the unpublished collection option.
The application should expressly state that the applicant is seeking to register a number of works as an unpublished collection.
An applicant may register a number of works as an unpublished collection (i) if the claimant is the author of those works or (ii) if the same author created all of the works and if the claimant acquired the copyright in those works through a transfer of ownership. In all cases, the claimant must own the copyright in all the component works that are claimed in the application. If any of the works are not owned by the claimant, the applicant should exclude those works from the claim using the procedure described in Chapter 600, Section 621.8(B).
1106.2 Registration Requirements
In addition to satisfying the eligibility criteria discussed in Section 1106.1, the applicant must submit a completed application, a deposit consisting of all of the works in the collection, and the correct filing fee in order to register a number of works with the unpublished collection option.
The applicant may submit an online application through the U.S. Copyright Office's electronic registration system, or in the alternative, the applicant may submit a paper application using Forms TX, VA, PA, or SR. The Office strongly encourages applicants to use the electronic registration system rather than a paper application because online
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