When a Copyright Registration or Renewal is Found The Item May Still be Public Domain

If you find a 1923 or later registration, or a 1950 or later renewal record, does this mean the work is under Copyright protection? Not always. Copyright owners make mistakes and miss deadlines. Below are some ways that Copyright registrations or renewals may be invalid.

• The work itself must display a valid Copyright Notice. Just registering is not sufficient for Copyright protection. (See "The Copyright Notice Test " for details.)
• If the Copyright date is listed anywhere in Roman numerals (for example, 1930 in Arabic numerals would be MCMXXX in roman numerals), translate and double check the year on the original registration, the Copyright notice and the renewal. There may be mistakes that invalidate the Copyright or the renewal. See below for specific examples.
• If the year in the Copyright notice is more than one year later than the date of first "publication" as defined by the Copyright Act , the Copyright is not valid. (Code of Federal Regulations Title 37 Section 202.2.)
• For works first published or Copyrighted before 1964, the renewal had to be filed during the 28th year of the Copyright term.
  • Because the year of the registration may be up to 28 years later than the year in the notice, many made the mistake of renewing based on the registration year instead of correctly in the notice year.  The Copyright term begins on December 31st of the year shown in the Copyright notice. (This is often referred to as the "in notice" year.) Check the date of the renewal. If the renewal was made in the 28th year of the "in notice" date, they have a valid renewal. If they made the common mistake of renewing in the 28th year of the registration date, the renewal was made too late and is probably invalid. The Copyright office may have accepted a renewal in the wrong year, but that is not a guarantee that the renewal is legally valid.
• A renewal must be filed by the Copyright owner to be valid. Compare the original, the renewal, and any records of transfer of Copyright ownership, and consult the Copyright statute to determine legal heirs to Copyright.
• Copyright protection may have been lost .
• The Copyright owner may have given away their Copyright.
• The Copyright owner may have ceased enforcing their Copyright.

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