USA Law and Practice Contributed by: Keith Medansky, Tamar Duvdevani, Michael Geller, Aislinn Smalling and Kristina Fernandez Mabrie, DLA Piper LLP
author’s life plus 70 years or more, depending on the nature of authorship as described above. Works that had already secured statutory protection under the 1909 Copyright Act had a 28-year initial term and up to a 67-year renewal term. Therefore, all works published before 1930 are in the public domain. An author may terminate a grant, assignment or licence of copyright after 35 years. See 6.1 Assign- ment Requirements and Restrictions . 3.6 Collective Rights Management Systems There are numerous collective management organisa - tions (CMOs) in the US that cover different creative sectors. CMOs typically deal with licensing, collecting and distributing royalties, legal representation, advo - cacy and other industry-related endeavours. 3.7 Copyright Registration The copyright claimant may seek registration. Foreign citizens may apply for registration so long as the appli - cant is a national or domicile of a country with which the US has signed a copyright treaty or in certain oth - er limited circumstances (see Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices § 2003.2). All unpublished foreign works are eligible for registration. Copyright in a work belongs initially to the author of the work (including, in the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared). The copyright claimant is either the author or a transferee of ownership. If the copy - right claimant is not the author, an application to reg - ister must contain a statement of how the claimant obtained ownership. Copyright protection exists the moment the creative work is fixed in a tangible medium. While registra - tion is not needed for protection, timely registration affords numerous benefits, including the ability to sue for infringement (for US works), prima facie presump - tion of validity and ownership, and the right to seek statutory damages and legal fees in an infringement lawsuit. Registration also permits a copyright owner to record the work with Customs for protection against infringing imports.
The United States Copyright Office (USCO) is the registry responsible for copyright registrations and recording transfers. USCO records are public. 3.8 Copyright Application Requirements To register, an applicant must provide the following: a completed application form, the filing fee and deposit copies of the work. The application form depends on the kind of work (eg, literary, sound recording, visual art, motion picture) and must include information such as: • title; • author(s) including dates of birth and death, nation - ality and/or domicile, and the nature of the author - ship; • year work was created; • date and nation of first publication; • name and address of the claimant and information about any transfer from the author to claimant; and • previous registration information and whether the work is derivative or a compilation. Works that are published in the US are technically subject to a “mandatory deposit” of two copies of the work for the collections of the Library of Congress. However, this was held unconstitutional by the DC Cir - cuit in Valancourt Books v Garland , No. 21-5203 (D.C. Cir. 2023). The requirement is still part of the Copyright Act. The deposit requirement differs for unpublished works and for certain other works. 3.9 Refusal of Registration If the USCO determines that the requirements for reg - istration are not met, it will refuse the application. The most common grounds include the following: • The work lacks the minimum level of creative authorship. • Failure to submit a complete application, fee or deposit. • The work is not covered by copyright law. • The work lacks human authorship. • The work is not fixed in a tangible medium of expression.
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