In most cases, the correspondent and the applicant are the same person, because the correspondent typically certifies and submits the application. In all cases, the correspondent must be:
- An author of the work;
- An owner who owns all of the exclusive rights in the work;
- An owner of one or more – but less than all – of the exclusive rights in the work; or
- A duly authorized agent of one or more of the foregoing parties.
As a general rule, the U.S. Copyright Office will send all communications concerning an application or a registration to the correspondent at the address provided in the registration record.
For guidance in completing the Correspondent field/space of the application, see Chapter 600, Section 622.2. For information on who may certify an application, see Chapter 600, Section 624.
404 Who Is the Claimant?
The only parties who are eligible to be the copyright claimant are (i) the author of the work, or (ii) a copyright owner who owns all of the exclusive rights in the work. 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(a)(3). A person or entity who owns one or more – but less than all – of the exclusive rights in a work is not eligible to be a claimant. See Part 202 – Registration of Claims to Copyright, 43 Fed. Reg. 965, 965 (Jan. 5, 1978); Registration of Copyright: Definition of Claimant, 77 Fed. Reg. 29,257, 29,258 (May 17, 2012).
Although the author or the copyright owner who owns all of the rights are the only parties who are entitled to claim ownership of the copyright, an application to register that claim may be certified and submitted by any of the parties listed in Section 402. In some cases, the applicant and the claimant may be the same party, while in other cases they may be different.
405 Applications Filed by or on Behalf of the Author
An author is either (i) the person or persons who created the work, or (ii) the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared, if the work was created during the course of employment or commissioned as a work made for hire. The author may be either a U.S. or a foreign citizen.
If the author owns all of the rights under the copyright on the date that the application is filed, the author must be named in the application as the copyright claimant. The author or the author’s duly authorized agent may certify and submit an application to register that claim. In the situation where the author certifies and submits the application, the author is considered both the applicant and the claimant. If the author’s duly authorized agent certifies and submits the application, the author is still the claimant but the author’s agent is considered the applicant.
