Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-571_e29f.pdf
Page Number: 8

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

5 

Opinion of the Court 

first  sentence  provides  that  no  civil  infringement  action
“shall be instituted until preregistration or registration of
the  copyright  claim  has  been  made.”    The  section’s  next 
sentence  sets  out  an  exception  to  this  rule:  When  the
required “deposit, application, and fee . . . have been deliv-
ered  to  the  Copyright  Office  in  proper  form  and  registra-
tion  has  been  refused,”  the  claimant  “[may]  institute  a 
civil action, if notice thereof . . . is served on the Register.” 
Read  together,  §411(a)’s  opening  sentences  focus  not  on 
the  claimant’s  act  of  applying  for  registration,  but  on 
action by the Copyright Office—namely, its registration or
refusal to register a copyright claim. 

If  application  alone  sufficed  to  “ma[ke]”  registration,
§411(a)’s  second  sentence—allowing  suit  upon  refusal  of 
registration—would  be  superfluous.  What  utility  would
that  allowance  have  if  a  copyright  claimant  could  sue  for 
infringement  immediately  after  applying  for  registration
without  awaiting  the  Register’s  decision  on  her  applica-
tion?  Proponents  of  the  application  approach  urge  that
§411(a)’s second sentence serves merely to require a copy-
right  claimant  to  serve  “notice  [of  an  infringement  suit] 
. . . on the Register.”  See Brief for Petitioner 29–32.  This 
reading,  however,  requires  the  implausible  assumption
that  Congress  gave  “registration”  different  meanings  in
consecutive,  related  sentences  within  a  single  statutory 
provision.  In §411(a)’s first sentence, “registration” would 
mean  the  claimant’s  act  of  filing  an  application,  while  in
the  section’s  second  sentence,  “registration”  would  entail 
the  Register’s  review  of  an  application.    We  resist  this 
improbable  construction.  See,  e.g.,  Mid-Con  Freight  Sys-
tems,  Inc.  v.  Michigan  Pub.  Serv.  Comm’n,  545  U. S.  440, 

—————— 

ment  if  notice  thereof,  with  a  copy  of  the  complaint,  is  served  on  the
Register of Copyrights.  The Register may, at his or her option, become 
a  party  to  the  action  with  respect  to  the  issue  of  registrability  of  the 
copyright claim . . . .”