The Office will make the preregistration record available to the public through the U.S. Copyright Office's website, www.copyright.gov/, and the Records, Research, and Certification Section will issue a certified copy of the notification of preregistration upon written request. See Chapter 2400, Section 2407.
See 37 C.F.R. § 202.16(c)(10)-(12); see also Preregistration of Certain Unpublished Copyright Claims, 70 Fed. Reg. 42,286, 42,290 (July 22, 2005); Preregistration of Certain Unpublished Copyright Claims, 70 Fed. Reg. 61,905, 61,906 [Oct. 27, 2005].
1609 Effective Date of Preregistration
The effective date of a Preregistration is the day on which the U.S. Copyright Office receives the filing fee and application for preregistration, which are later determined by the U.S. Copyright Office or a court of competent jurisdiction to be acceptable for preregistration. 37 C.F.R. § 202.16(c)(9).
1610 Refusals
If the registration specialist determines that the work described in the application does not constitute copyrightable subject matter, that the work is not eligible for preregistration, or that the claim is invalid for any other reason, he or she will refuse to preregister the claim. The specialist will notify the applicant in writing of the refusal and will specify the reasons for his or her decision.
1611 No Requests for Reconsideration
A refusal to preregister is not subject to administrative review. If an application for preregistration is refused, the U.S. Copyright Office will not entertain a request for reconsideration. See 37 C.F.R. § 202.5(a) (stating that administrative review is only available in cases involving a refusal to register a claim to copyright, a mask work, or a vessel design). If the applicant disagrees with the registration specialist's decision, the applicant must submit a new application that addresses the issues identified in the refusal to preregister. If the new application is determined to be acceptable for preregistration, the effective date of preregistration will be the day on which the new application and the new filing fee were received in the U.S. Copyright Office. See Section 1609.
1612 No Corrections or Cancellations
The U.S. Copyright Office conducts only a limited review of an application for preregistration, because a preregistration does not constitute prima facie evidence of the validity of the copyright or the facts stated in the notification of preregistration. Consequently, a preregistration will not be cancelled, corrected, supplemented, or amended once it has been entered in the public record. For example, the Office will not expunge a preregistration from its records if the applicant incorrectly described the work or made other errors in the application. Nor will the Office accept an application for a supplementary registration to correct or amplify the information in the preregistration record. See Chapter 1800, Section 1802.4.
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