Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-571_e29f.pdf
Page Number: 12

Cite as:  586 U. S. ____ (2019) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

gress’ agreement with Judge Hand that it is the Register’s
action that triggers a copyright owner’s entitlement to sue.
In  enacting  17  U. S. C.  §411(a),  Congress  both  reaffirmed 
the  general  rule  that  registration  must  precede  an  in-
fringement  suit,  and  added  an  exception  in  that  provi-
sion’s  second  sentence  to  cover  instances  in  which  regis-
tration  is  refused.  See  H. R.  Rep.  No.  94‒1476,  p.  157 
(1976).  That  exception  would  have  no  work  to  do  if,  as
Fourth Estate urges, Congress intended the 1976 revisions 
to  clarify  that  a  copyright  claimant  may  sue  immediately 
upon  applying  for  registration.    A  copyright  claimant
would need no statutory authorization to sue after refusal
of her application if she could institute suit as soon as she 
has filed the application. 

Noteworthy,  too,  in  years  following  the  1976  revisions,
Congress  resisted  efforts  to  eliminate  §411(a)  and  the 
registration  requirement  embedded  in  it.  In  1988,  Con-
gress  removed  foreign  works  from  §411(a)’s  dominion  in 
order to comply with the Berne Convention for the Protec-
tion  of  Literary  and  Artistic  Works’  bar  on  copyright  for-
malities  for  such  works.  See  §9(b)(1),  102  Stat.  2859. 
Despite  proposals  to  repeal  §411(a)’s  registration  require-
ment  entirely,  however,  see  S. Rep.  No.  100‒352,  p.  36
(1988), Congress maintained the requirement for domestic 
works,  see  §411(a).  Subsequently,  in  1993,  Congress 
considered, but declined to adopt, a proposal to allow suit 
immediately upon submission of a registration application. 
See  H. R.  Rep.  No.  103–338,  p. 4  (1993).    And  in  2005, 
Congress  made  a  preregistration  option  available  for 
works  vulnerable  to  predistribution  infringement.    See 
Artists’  Rights  and  Theft  Prevention  Act  of  2005,  §104, 
119 Stat. 221.  See also supra, at 3–4.  Congress chose that
course in face of calls to eliminate registration in cases of 
predistribution  infringement.  70  Fed.  Reg.  42286.    Time 
and again, then, Congress has maintained registration as
prerequisite  to  suit,  and  rejected  proposals  that  would