Category: copyright

“A ‘mask work’ is a series of related images, however fixed or encoded — (A) having or representing the predetermined, three-dimensional pattern of metallic, insulating, or semiconductor material present or removed from the layers of a semiconductor chip product; and (B) in which series the relation of the images to one another is that each… Continue reading Mask work

Section 601 of the 1976 Copyright Act, which was repealed by the Copyright Cleanup, Clarification, and Corrections Act of 2010. Prior to 1986, United States authors who claimed copyright in magazines, newspapers, and books published and printed in the English language were required to indicate that the work was manufactured in the United States or… Continue reading Manufacturing clause

A deposit copy sent to the U.S. Copyright Office pursuant to Section 407 of the Copyright Act. Section 407 provides that the owner of copyright or the owner of the exclusive right of publication in a work published in the United States shall deposit two copies or phonorecords of the best edition of the work… Continue reading Mandatory deposit copy

“‘Literary works’ are works, other than audiovisual works, expressed in words, numbers, or other verbal or numerical symbols or indicia, regardless of the nature of the material objects, such as books, periodicals, manuscripts, phonorecords, film, tapes, disks, or cards, in which they are embodied.” 17 U.S.C. § 101. A literary work is a nondramatic work… Continue reading Literary works

An abbreviation for the “Literary Division” of the U.S. Copyright Office.

The portion of the application that identifies copyrightable material that has been excluded from the claim. It is typically used to exclude previously published material, previously registered material, public domain material, and/or material that is not owned by the claimant named in the application. In the online application, this portion of the application includes the… Continue reading Limitation of claim

The Licensing Division in the U.S. Copyright Office administers certain statutory licenses set forth in the Copyright Act. The Division collects royalty payments and examines statements of account for the cable statutory license (17 U.S.C. § 111), the satellite statutory license for retransmission of distant television broadcast stations (17 U.S.C. § 119), and the statutory… Continue reading Licensing Division

An agreement by which a party grants another party one or more rights (but fewer than all rights), usually limited to a particular territory and/or time period. A license may be granted as an exclusive license or a nonexclusive license.

“A ‘joint work’ is a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole.” 17 U.S.C. § 101.

A unique identifier assigned to a serial publication by national centers under the auspices of the ISSN network. The U.S. Copyright Office does not assign these numbers to published works. In the United States, ISSNs are administered by the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov/issn).