USA Law and Practice Contributed by: Keith Medansky, Tamar Duvdevani, Michael Geller, Aislinn Smalling and Kristina Fernandez Mabrie, DLA Piper LLP
Works that had already secured statutory pro - tection 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 Assignment Requirements and Restrictions . 3.6 Collective Rights Management Systems There are numerous collective management organisations (CMOs) in the US that cover dif - ferent creative sectors. CMOs typically deal with licensing, collecting and distributing royal - ties, legal representation, advocacy and other The copyright claimant may seek registration. Foreign citizens may apply for registration so long as the applicant is a national or domicile of a country with which the US has signed a copyright treaty or in certain other limited cir - cumstances (see Compendium of U.S. Copy - right 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 All unpublished foreign works are eligible for registration.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 copyright claimant is not the author, an application to register must contain a statement of how the claimant obtained ownership. industry-related endeavours. 3.7 Copyright Registration Copyright protection exists the moment the cre - ative work is fixed in a tangible medium. While registration is not needed for protection, timely registration affords numerous benefits, including
the ability to sue for infringement (for US works), prima facie, presumption of validity and owner - ship, and the right to seek statutory damages and legal fees in an infringement lawsuit. Regis - tration 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 registra - tions and recording transfers. USCO records are public. 3.8 Copyright Application Requirements To register, the following is required: a completed application form, the filing fee and deposit cop - ies 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, nationality and/or domicile, and the nature of the authorship; • year work was created; • date and nation of first publication; • name and address of the claimant and infor - mation 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 techni - cally 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 Circuit in Valancourt Books v Garland , No. 21-5203 (D.C. Cir. 2023). The requirement is still part of the Copyright Act.
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