# Compendium of US Copyright Office Practices, II (1984)/1300

Chapter 1300
RENEWAL OF COPYRIGHT
Outline of Topics
Chapter 1300
RENEWAL OF COPYRIGHT
Works copyrighted before January 1, 1978. Section 304(a) of the copyright law provides that "any copyright, the first term of which is subsisting on January 1, 1978," endures for 28 years from the date it was originally secured, and that a renewal term of copyright lasting 47 years, can be secured by certain designated claimants if an application for renewal is made to the Copyright Office "within one year prior to the expiration of the original term of copy­ right." The law specifies that all such terms of copyright run to the end of the calendar year in which they would otherwise expire. See 17 U.S.C. 305. This not only affects the dura­tion of copyright: it also affects the time limits for renewal registration. See section 1302 below.
NOTE: For works that were in their renewal term of copyright on December 31, 1977, the law auto­matically extended the copyright to last for a total of 75 years (a first term of 28 years plus a renewal term of 47 years) measured from ​the end of the year in which the copyright was originally secured; no additional renewal is necessary for such works.
Time limits for renewal. A copyright may be renewed for a renewal term of 47 years, provided that an acceptable application and fee are received in the Copyright Office or elsewhere in the Library of Congress during the year immediately preceding the expiration date of the original term of copy­right. See 17 U.S.C. 304(a).
See 37 C.F.R. 202.17(c)(3).
Example:
Date of receipt. The date of actual receipt in the Copyright Office determines the acceptability of a renewal application. See 37 C.F.R. 202.17(c).
Application received after the renewal year. If an application or fee is received after the renewal year has expired, the claim will be refused.
Examples:
Original registration. Except as provided in sec­tion 1309.01 below, copyright in a work will not be registered for a renewal term unless an original registration for the work has been made in the Copyright Office. However, the original and renewal claims may be submitted simultaneously, although the renewal claim will be processed only after a registration number has been assigned to the application for the original term. Generally, in examining such applications for first-term registration, the Copyright Office will apply the practices existing at the time the work was origi­nally published in determining registrability. The current application forms and registration fees will be required.
NOTE: The Copyright Office may register claims to renewal even though it might not under its present policies register the original claim.
Exception to requirement for original regis­tration. An original registration in the Copyright Office is not a condition precedent for renewal registration in the case of a work in which U.S. copyright subsists by virtue of section 9(c) of title 17, U.S.C., in effect on December 31, 1977, (which implemented the Uni­versal Copyright Convention), provided, how­ ever, that the application for renewal regis­tration is accompanied by:
A submission relating to the notice of copy­right and copyrightable content which shall be, in descending order of preference, comprised of:
(1) A photocopy of the title page of the work as first published, and
Example:
Group registrations. A single renewal regis­tration may be made for a group of works by the same individual author, all first published as contributions to periodicals, including news­papers, upon submisson of a single fee and application, when certain conditions are met. The "author" here means an individual person and not an employer in the case of a work made for hire. Also the class in which the original registrations were made is immaterial and is not limited to Class B (Form BB). The above­ mentioned conditions, set forth below, must all be met:
Effect of the Universal Copyright Convention. The UCC came into force with respect to the United States on September 16, 1955. The implementing legislation provides that, upon the corning into force of the Universal Copyright Convention in a foreign state or nation, every book or periodical of a citi­zen or subject thereof in which ad interim copyright was subsisting on the effective date of said coming into force shall have copyright for 28 years from the date of first publication abroad without the necessity of complying with the further formalities specified. See section 9(c) of the Act of 1909, as amended. Therefore, in such cases the ad interim copyright was extended to the full 28-year term measured from the date of first publication abroad, and such copyrights are renewable in accor­dance with the general provisions relating to the term for other published works. See section 1303 above. In determining whether renewal registration is possible, the fac­tors to be considered include the follow­ing:
Definition of widow or widower. The author's widow or widower is the author's surviving spouse under the law of the author's domicile at the time of his or her death, whether or not the spouse has later remarried. 17 U.S.C. 101.
Definition of children. A person's "children" are that person's immediate offspring, whether legitimate or not, and any children legally adopted by that person. 17 U.S.C. 101.
Personal right. The right to claim renewal as "executor" is a personal one, and the renewal application must name the individual executor.
Definition. The term "next of kin" refers only to blood relatives of the author.
Example:
Will but no executor. If the author left a will, but no executor exists at the time for renewal, the proper renewal claimant is unclear.
If it is unclear whether executors still exist, registration may be made in the names of both the executors and the next of kin on separate applications and for separate fees.
Example:
If the author leaves a will which names no executor, or if the person named cannot or will not act as executor, the court may appoint an "administrator cum testamento annexo" (administrator with the will annexed: administrator c.t.a) who performs the identical functions of an executor. When the estate has been settled and the executor discharged, or when the executor is removed before the estate is completely administered, the court may appoint an "administrator de bonis non cum testamento annexo (adminis­trator de bonis non with the will annexed: administrator d.b.n.c.t.a.) to deal with the remaining or after-acquired property under the will.
Posthumous works. If a work is "posthumous" within the meaning of the copyright law, the proprietor is the proper renewal claimant. Generally, the author's widow, widower, children, executor, or next of kin have no right to claim renewal in a "posthumous work."
Proper claimant. Where the work is "posthumous" within the meaning of section 304(a) of the copyright law, the appropriate claimant is the proprietor.
Individual contributions. While the proprietor of a composite work may claim renewal in the work as a whole, the author of an individual contribution, or the author's beneficiaries, may also claim renewal in the contribution.
When not acceptable. This basis of claim is not acceptable when:
The individual author of an unpublished work transferred his common-law literary property, or his right to secure copy­right, to a corporation.
Corporate body: special circumstances. In cases other than those listed in section l3l7.06(b) above, registration on this basis will be strongly discouraged and will be made only when the applicant indicates that there were special circumstances under which the claim might conceivably be said to apply.
Examples:
Determinations by Copyright Office. The Copyright Office will generally make no effort to determine whether or not a par­ticular agreement constituted employment for hire.
Work made for hire. In order for this claim to be applicable, as the Act explicitly states, the work must have been copyrighted by the employer for whom the work was made for hire.
More than one author. When more than one author contributed to a work, the renewal claimant need not specify that all of the authors were employed for hire.
Later application, same work. Once a renewal registration has been made, the Copyright Office will generally not accept a duplicate
Adverse claims. When an application is received that conflicts with a renewal claim which has already been registered, the Copyright Office will inform the second applicant of the con­flicting statements contained in the registered renewal claim, and will request an explanation.
Adverse claims: conflicts concerning the author and the author's successors.
Adverse claims: conflicts concerning propri­etors, authors, and authors' successors.
When a renewal claim was registered in the name of one of several authors, and a new renewal application is submitted as "pro­prietor of copyright in a work made for hire" without restricting the claim to the work of a particular author or authors, the Copyright Office will ask whether the claim covers the material written by the person ​in whose name registration has already been made. If so, registration will be made if the applicant reasserts the claim. If not, a new application should be submitted con­fining the claim to the material written by employees for hire.
Later version. The original author of a published work cannot claim renewal in a later version of that work unless that author contributed to the new matter on which copyright in the later version was ​claimed. For example, where it appears from the record that an author's original composition was published before an arrangement of it by another person, a renewal claim in the arrangement by the author, based on his original composi­tion, is unacceptable.
[END OF CHAPTER 1300]