See generally Registration of Claims to Copyright: Group Registration of Serial Issues Filed Electronically, 77 Fed. Reg. 66,920 (Nov. 8, 2012); Registration of Claims to Copyright: Group Registration of Serials, 55 Fed. Reg. 50,556 (Dec. 7, 1990).
1109.1 What Is a Serial?
For purposes of this group registration option, a serial is defined as a work that is issued or intended to be issued on an established schedule in successive parts bearing numerical or chronological designations that are intended to be continued indefinitely. Examples include periodicals, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, journals, bulletins, annuals, the proceedings of societies, and other similar works. See 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b)(l)(v).
1109.2 Eligibility Requirements
A group of serials may be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, provided that the following conditions have been met:
• Each issue in the group must be a serial as defined in Section 1109.1.
• The group must contain at least two issues.
• Each issue must be an essentially all-new collective work that has been published for the first time.
• The author(s) and the copyright claimant(s) for all of the issues must be the same person or organization.
• The claim to copyright must be limited to the collective work.
• Each issue must be a work made for hire.
• Each issue must be created no more than one year prior to publication.
• The serial must be published at an interval of a week or longer, such as a weekly, biweekly, or monthly publication.
• All of the issues must be published within a period of three months [e.g., January 1st through March 31st, February 1st through April 30th, October 1st through December 31st, etc.).
• All of the issues must be published in the same calendar year.
• The Library of Congress must receive two complimentary copies promptly after publication of each issue of the serial.
See 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b) (6) (i).
Serials that do not satisfy these requirements cannot be registered using this group registration option.
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