Copyright Registration Checklist: From Deposit to Certificate

By Casey Scott McKay · 2025-06-26

This checklist runs a single copyright claim from the first intake question to the docketed litigation calendar, in eleven phases a practitioner can work top to bottom. It opens with the triage nobody does first, whether anyone has already infringed and whether the work is published, because Sections 412 and 410(d) decide what the filing is worth before any field gets typed. It then covers ownership and the Section 204(a) writing, the publication determination and its five downstream consequences, the choice among the Standard application, the Single application, a unit-of-publication claim, and the thirteen group options at 37 C.F.R. 202.4, the authorship and claimant fields, limitation of claim for derivative, licensed, and AI-generated material, a deposit built to survive Torres-Negrón including the four trade-secret alternatives for source code at Section 202.20(c)(2)(vii), filing and certification, special handling under Section 201.3(d), the correspondence and reconsideration ladder to the Copyright Review Board, the certificate audit and supplementary registration, and the four dates every registered work needs on a docket. It carries one matter, a Chicago food photographer, twelve cookbook images delivered 28 January 2025, and a grocery chain's circular that began running on 3 May, through every phase. Fee tables, model language, and the mistakes that cost real money run alongside each phase.

IP and Technology > Copyright | Checklist - Practical Law | Published 26 June 2025 - Updated 16 January 2026 | admin@rightsy.io - rightsy.io

Summary. Eleven phases, worked top to bottom, take one copyright claim from intake to a docketed certificate. The checklist opens with the triage that decides everything — has anyone already infringed, and was the work published, and on exactly what date — because 17 U.S.C. § 412 and 17 U.S.C. § 410(d) set the value of the filing before a single field is typed. It then covers ownership and the § 204(a) writing, the publication determination, the choice among the Standard and Single applications, unit-of-publication claims, and the thirteen group options at 37 C.F.R. § 202.4, the authorship and claimant fields and the work-made-for-hire box, limitation of claim for derivative, licensed, and AI-generated material, a deposit built to survive a Torres-Negrón attack, filing and certification, special handling under 37 C.F.R. § 201.3(d), the correspondence and reconsideration ladder ending at the Copyright Review Board, the certificate audit and supplementary registration, and the four docket entries every registered work needs. One matter runs through all of it: a Chicago food photographer, twelve cookbook images delivered on 28 January 2025, and a grocery chain's circular that started on 3 May.

Keywords: copyright registration checklist · effective date of registration · 17 u.s.c. 412 · three-month grace window · deposit copy · best edition · group registration · grpph · gruph · special handling · standard application · single application · work made for hire · limitation of claim · supplementary registration · correspondence deadline · copyright review board · certificate of registration · first publication date · docketing copyright deadlines

What this checklist is for

You have a work and you need it registered with the U.S. Copyright Office in a way that will still be standing when a defendant's summary judgment brief goes after it three years from now. This is the operational sequence — what to confirm, decide, draft, deposit, certify, pay, docket, and audit.

Who should use it. Copyright counsel and paralegals running a filing; in-house counsel building a standing registration cadence; litigators who have just been handed a matter and need to know whether the client's registrations are worth anything; and creators filing on their own behalf.

What you'll need before you start. The exact digital file you intend to deposit, with its SHA-256 hash and file date. The first invoice, delivery receipt, or dated post that establishes when the work first left the building. Every agreement with every human who touched the work — employment agreements, contractor agreements, co-author agreements, and any assignment. Any prior registration numbers for earlier versions or component material. A list of everything in the work that somebody else made. A payment method and a docketing system you control.

What this document does not do. It does not explain why the dates matter — that is What Copyright Registration Actually Buys You: Statutory Damages, Fees, and the Right to Sue. It does not walk the reasoning behind each decision, with decision trees and model language — that is the companion practitioner's guide to applications, deposits, and group registration. Use this at the desk; use those when the file does something this list does not anticipate. Both sit inside the Copyright Fundamentals Toolkit.

| Phase | What you accomplish | Typical time | Government cost | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | Triage the clock; confirm the work is registrable at all | 20–60 min | $0 | | 2 | Establish ownership and chain of title | 30 min–half day | $0 | | 3 | Fix the first publication date to a document | 15 min–2 hrs | $0 | | 4 | Choose the application or group option | 10–45 min | $0 | | 5 | Complete authorship, claimant, work-made-for-hire | 15–60 min | $0 | | 6 | Limit the claim | 15–45 min | $0 | | 7 | Build the deposit and archive a byte-identical copy | 15 min–4 hrs | $0 | | 8 | File, certify, pay, capture the date — expedite if needed | 20–40 min | $45–$865 | | 9 | Answer correspondence; climb the refusal ladder if you must | Months | $0–$1,050 | | 10 | Audit the certificate; correct it; record what needs recording | 30 min + | $0–$100 | | 11 | Docket the litigation timeline | 15 min | $0 |

The matter we carry through. Mara Oyelaran is a Chicago food photographer. Her studio operates as Oyelaran Studio LLC. On 28 January 2025 she delivered twelve finished cookbook images to her publisher client, Fen & Fig Press, under a license permitting use in a cookbook. On 8 February she posted twelve low-resolution, download-disabled versions to her portfolio site. On 3 May, Halvorsen Markets — a 210-store grocery chain — began running one of the twelve in its weekly circular and on roughly four thousand in-store endcap displays. Mara learned of it on 20 September. She retained counsel on 28 October 2025. Everything below is what counsel actually did.

Phase 1 — Triage the clock and confirm the work is registrable

[ ] Ask, before anything else: has anyone already used this work without permission, and on exactly what date did the first unauthorized act occur?
- Why. That date, compared against the effective date of registration, decides whether statutory damages and fees exist in this matter. Everything downstream is bookkeeping by comparison.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 412; 17 U.S.C. § 410(d).
- Trap. Clients hear "when did you find out." Ask "when did it start." Infringement commences at the first act in a course of conduct, and later acts inherit that date. Derek Andrew, Inc. v. Poof Apparel Corp., 528 F.3d 696, 700–01 (9th Cir. 2008).
[ ] Ask whether the work is published or unpublished, provisionally, and flag it in red if unpublished and already exposed.
- Why. The three-month grace window in § 412(2) does not exist for unpublished works. Clause (1) bars statutory damages and fees for any infringement of an unpublished work commenced before the effective date of registration, with no runway at all.
[ ] Confirm human authorship, and identify any material generated by an AI system.
- Authority. Thaler v. Perlmutter, 687 F. Supp. 3d 140, 145–46 (D.D.C. 2023), aff'd, 130 F.4th 1039 (D.C. Cir. 2025); Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices § 313.2 (3d ed. 2021); Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence, 88 Fed. Reg. 16190 (Mar. 16, 2023).
- The intake questions and the disclosure policy that keep this from becoming a Phase 9 problem are in the Generative AI IP Compliance Checklist and Who Owns What the Machine Made.
[ ] Screen the work against the standard refusal categories before you spend the fee: words, short phrases, names, titles, and slogans; familiar symbols; mere variations of typographic ornamentation or coloring; blank forms; ideas, systems, and methods; and useful articles with no separable authorship.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 202.1(a)–(d); 17 U.S.C. § 102(b); Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340, 345 (1991); Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc., 580 U.S. 405, 417 (2017).
- If the answer is a name or a slogan, the client wants a trademark, not a copyright — start at the Pre-Filing Trademark Application Checklist. If it is a product shape, start at the Trade Dress Protection Checklist.
[ ] Search the Copyright Office public catalog for prior registrations of this work, earlier versions of it, and component material.
- Trap. A second basic registration of the same claim is not a fix and is not free. If a registration already exists and is wrong, you are in Phase 10, not Phase 1.
[ ] Determine whether the work is a "United States work" under 17 U.S.C. § 101.
- Why. Only U.S. works are subject to the § 411(a) suit precondition. Foreign first publication is a real advantage and a burden the plaintiff carries. Kernel Records Oy v. Mosley, 694 F.3d 1294, 1303–06 (11th Cir. 2012).
[ ] If the work is unpublished, in preparation for commercial distribution, and in one of the six preregistration classes — motion pictures, sound recordings, musical compositions, literary works being prepared for book publication, computer programs including video games, advertising or marketing photographs — decide on preregistration now.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 408(f); 37 C.F.R. § 202.16. Fee: $200.
- Trap. Preregistration is a bridge, not a destination. Register within the earlier of three months after first publication or one month after learning of an infringement, or the court must dismiss claims for infringement occurring before or within two months after first publication. 17 U.S.C. § 408(f)(4).

Mara, 28 October 2025. Counsel's first three questions produced: infringement commenced 3 May 2025; the twelve images were published; and delivery to Fen & Fig, not the portfolio post, was the operative event. Two of the three answers changed the shape of the engagement before an application was opened.

Phase 2 — Establish ownership and chain of title

[ ] List every human who contributed protectable expression, with role and employment status: W-2 employee within the scope of employment, independent contractor, or outside co-author.
[ ] Collect the signed agreement for every contractor and every co-author. No agreement means no assignment.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 204(a) — a transfer of copyright ownership is not valid unless in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed.
[ ] Confirm the entity you intend to name as claimant actually owns the copyright, in writing, dated before the filing.
- Trap. The most common defect in solo-creator filings is naming an LLC as claimant on a Single application. The Single application requires one individual author who owns all rights, so an entity claimant disqualifies it outright. 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b)(2)(i)(B). The fix is a Standard application naming the individual as author and the entity as claimant with a transfer statement — not naming the individual and hoping.
[ ] Fix any gap in the chain before filing, not after. A missing founder assignment, an unsigned contractor agreement, or a predecessor entity that never conveyed anything is cheaper to cure today than to explain in a deposition.
- Run Copyright Ownership and Chain-of-Title Checklist: Assignments, Work-for-Hire, and Termination Windows in parallel with this phase. The doctrine is Who Owns the Work; the paperwork is Transfers, Licenses, and Termination Rights. For the signed-writing structure, adapt the assignment agreement template.
[ ] Identify every joint author and name all of them.
- Why. An omitted co-owner keeps an independent right to grant non-exclusive licenses and a claim to an accounting, and surfaces at the worst possible moment.
[ ] Itemize third-party material inside the work — stock assets, licensed music, licensed fonts, open-source code, public domain material, third-party photographs — with source and license terms.
- This list becomes the Phase 6 limitation of claim. Clearing it before you deposit is the Fair Use Risk Assessment Checklist; for a track or a score it is the Music Clearance Checklist.

Mara. She is the individual author of every image; the LLC is the claimant. A two-line assignment signed at formation satisfies § 204(a) and lives in the matter file. That single document is what makes the transfer statement By written agreement a provable sentence rather than a hopeful one.

Phase 3 — Fix the first publication date to a document

[ ] Answer the publication question from the first invoice or delivery receipt, not from the client's memory of the launch.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 101 (definition of "publication"). A public performance or display does not, of itself, constitute publication.
- Trap. Memory anchors on the visible event — the launch, the post, the press release. Publication usually happened weeks earlier, at a delivery or a distributor handoff.
[ ] Treat delivery of finished work to a client who will run it as publication on the delivery date, even if the client never runs it.
- Why. It is an offering to distribute copies to a person for purposes of further distribution. 17 U.S.C. § 101.
[ ] Treat a download-enabled public posting as publication; treat a display-only, download-disabled posting as public display, and document which one it was.
- Authority. Getaped.com, Inc. v. Cangemi, 188 F. Supp. 2d 398, 402 (S.D.N.Y. 2002); Compendium ch. 1000.
[ ] Document any limited publication — distribution to a select group, for a limited purpose, with no right of further reproduction, distribution, or sale — with the restriction in writing.
- Authority. Am. Vitagraph, Inc. v. Levy, 659 F.2d 1023, 1027 (9th Cir. 1981).
[ ] Record the nation of first publication alongside the date.
[ ] Immediately calendar publication date plus three months as a hard, non-extendable deadline, and publication date plus five years as the § 410(c) presumption window.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 412(2); 17 U.S.C. § 410(c).
[ ] Calendar the separate § 407 mandatory deposit obligation — two complete copies of the best edition to the Library of Congress within three months of U.S. publication — and confirm whether the registration deposit will satisfy it.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 407; § 407(d) (fines). Cf. Valancourt Books, LLC v. Garland, 82 F.4th 1222 (D.C. Cir. 2023) (§ 407 an unconstitutional taking as applied to a small publisher).

Mara. Two candidate dates: the 28 January delivery to Fen & Fig and the 8 February portfolio post. The delivery controls. Her three-month § 412 window therefore closed on 28 April 2025, not 8 May — ten days earlier than she and her prior lawyer had assumed. A 22 April filing would have landed inside it. Nothing was filed until November.

Phase 4 — Choose the application

[ ] Confirm the count: one work, or more than one?
[ ] If more than one and all were first published together, on the same date, as one unit, with one claimant, use a unit-of-publication claim. Otherwise do not.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b)(4).
- Trap. A "2025 collection" assembled from works released on nine different dates is not a single unit. This is the Unicolors claim type and the most abused product in the Office. Unicolors, Inc. v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, L.P., 595 U.S. 178, 187 (2022) (willful blindness may still establish knowledge).
[ ] Otherwise run the group table on five variables at once: published status, content type, author/claimant identity, count cap, and time window.

| Option | Rule | Covers | Cap | Window | Fee | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | GRUW — unpublished works | § 202.4(c) | Up to 10 unpublished works in one administrative class | 10 | none | $85 | | GRUPH — unpublished photographs | § 202.4(h) | Unpublished photographs, same photographer | 750 | none | $55 | | GRPPH — published photographs | § 202.4(i) | Published photographs, same photographer | 750 | same calendar year | $55 | | GRTX — short online literary works | § 202.4(j) | Online text, 50–17,500 words each | 50 | 3 calendar months | $65 | | GRTA — two-dimensional artwork | § 202.4(l) | 2-D artworks, author must be claimant | 20 | one calendar year | $85 | | GRAM — works on an album | § 202.4(k) | Musical works or sound recordings on one album, plus art and liner text | 20 | one album | $65 | | GRSE — serials | § 202.4(d) | Issues published at intervals of a week or longer | 2+ | 3 months, same year | $35/issue | | GRNP / GRNL — newspapers, newsletters | § 202.4(e)–(f) | Issues of a daily newspaper or a newsletter | — | same calendar month | $95 | | GRCP — contributions to periodicals | § 202.4(g) | Articles, columns, photographs by one individual author | — | 12 months | $85 | | GRNW — news website updates | § 202.4(m) | Daily updates to a news website | — | same calendar month | check schedule | | Databases | § 202.3(b)(5) | A database and its updates | — | 3 months, same year | varies |

[ ] Verify the author-and-claimant constraint for the group option you picked before you build the deposit.
- Why. This is what eliminates most filings. GRUW requires the author to be the claimant; GRTX requires the individual creators to be named as claimants and excludes works made for hire; GRUPH and GRPPH require the same photographer and the same claimant. A studio taking assignments from freelancers cannot use GRUW for that material.
[ ] Confirm the group option registers each work separately, and note it for the damages fight later.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 202.4(r); Compendium § 1105.4; Alaska Stock, LLC v. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., 747 F.3d 673, 685–86 (9th Cir. 2014); Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. v. American Home Realty Network, Inc., 722 F.3d 591, 597 (4th Cir. 2013).
[ ] If nothing on the table fits, file a Standard application. If one individual author owns everything and it is not a work made for hire, file the cheaper Single application.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b)(2)(i), (b)(2)(i)(B).
- Trap. There is no group registration for an ordinary commercial website. A company publishing fifty pages a month either registers them individually, squeezes eligible text into GRTX, or accepts that most of its content sits outside § 412. Say that to the client in writing before they build an enforcement plan on it. Site-launch sequencing is in the Website and App Launch Legal Checklist and the Website and App Launch IP Toolkit.

Mara, sorted. 4,180 unpublished frames from 2024–2025: six GRUPH filings at $55 = $330. 512 published 2025 images: one GRPPH = $55. 190 published 2024 images: a second GRPPH, because the calendar-year rule forbids combining them = $55. Total to register 4,882 photographs: $440. The Standard-application alternative would have been 4,882 × $65 = $317,330. The twelve Halvorsen images ride inside the 2025 GRPPH — and one of them also gets its own expedited filing in Phase 8.

Phase 5 — Complete authorship, claimant, and the work-made-for-hire box

[ ] Name the author. For a work made for hire, the author is the employer or commissioning party.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 201(b).
[ ] Check the work-made-for-hire box only if the work was prepared by an employee within the scope of employment, or falls within one of the nine enumerated categories in 17 U.S.C. § 101 and there is a signed written instrument saying so.
- Trap. A contract reciting "work made for hire" does not make a freelance photograph or a standalone software module a work made for hire. Checking the box anyway puts a false author on a certificate that 17 U.S.C. § 410(c) will present as prima facie true. The correct filing names the individual as author and the company as claimant by written agreement, relying on the contract's fallback assignment.
- Why it is permanent. The box makes the employer the author, sets the term at 95 years from publication or 120 from creation under 17 U.S.C. § 302(c), and eliminates the 17 U.S.C. § 203 termination right.
[ ] Name the claimant, and if the claimant is not the author, supply the transfer statement § 409(5) requires.
- Use the Office's standardized phrasing: By written agreement. Where the facts require more: By written assignment dated 14 March 2025.
- Trap. Do not write "By purchase," "Work for hire," or "Employee" in the transfer field. Each tells an examiner the applicant does not know which mechanism is operating.
[ ] Complete the Author Created / nature-of-authorship field narrowly and accurately. "Photograph" claims the photograph. "Compilation of photographs" claims selection and arrangement only, per 17 U.S.C. § 103(b). "Computer program" is standard; adding "text of user manual, screen displays" claims three things and requires support for all three.
[ ] Decide on anonymous or pseudonymous treatment deliberately, knowing the duration trade under § 302(c).
[ ] Give the Office a correspondent and a rights-and-permissions contact that will still exist in three years, and put a shared mailbox in the field, not a departing associate's address.

Thicket Studio, the guide's second client, in one line. Six W-2 developers wrote Salt Marsh in the scope of employment — work made for hire, box checked. Two contractors wrote the audio engine, which is not one of the nine categories — those two are named as authors, Thicket is claimant by written agreement. Getting that split right at filing is a $0 decision; getting it wrong is a $100 supplementary registration and a bad deposition.

Phase 6 — Limit the claim

[ ] Fill both paired fields — Material Excluded and New Material Included. One without the other means nothing.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 103(b); Compendium § 621.
[ ] Exclude previously registered material by registration number: Text and photographs previously registered under TX0009123456.
[ ] Exclude previously published material: Chapters 1 through 7, previously published in 2023.
[ ] Exclude public domain material, and claim only what the human added: Public domain engravings excluded; digital restoration, colorization, and arrangement included. Faithful reproduction adds nothing protectable. Feist, 499 U.S. at 345.
[ ] Exclude third-party licensed material — stock photographs, licensed compositions, typeface designs, open-source components.
[ ] Disclose and disclaim more than a de minimis amount of AI-generated material, and describe the human contribution.
- Authority. 88 Fed. Reg. 16190 (Mar. 16, 2023); Compendium § 313.2.
- Trap. A disclaimed background costs you a narrower certificate. An undisclosed one costs you the certificate. The unresolved middle — the designer who used a diffusion model for one element and believed her selection and arrangement made the whole thing hers — is mapped in the AI, Content, and IP Toolkit and, for the contract side, Deploying Generative AI Without Losing Your IP.
[ ] For software, exclude every prior registered version by number and claim New and revised computer program code, naming the discrete new subsystems where you can.
- Why. Every release after the first is a derivative work, and a registration of version 4.2 does not cover the surviving code from 1.0. The § 412 analysis runs against whichever registration actually covers the copied module.
[ ] For a musical work embodied in a sound recording, confirm which of the two copyrights you are registering — and whether one application can cover both.
- The two-copyright problem, and what it does to clearance, is Two Copyrights, One Song and Clearing a Track.

Phase 7 — Build the deposit and archive a byte-identical copy

[ ] Determine the deposit quantity: one complete copy for an unpublished work; two complete copies of the best edition for a work published in the United States; one complete copy as first published for a work first published abroad.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 408(b); 37 C.F.R. § 202.20; best edition defined at 37 C.F.R. § 202.19(b)(1) and Appendix B to Part 202.
[ ] Determine whether the deposit may be uploaded or must be mailed in physical form. If the work was published in physical copies, the Office generally wants physical copies.
- Trap. Complete the electronic application, pay, print the shipping slip the system generates, and mail the deposit with that slip attached. The § 410(d) effective date is the day the application, deposit, and fee have all been received. A hardcover book application filed 3 March with copies mailed 19 May has an effective registration date of 19 May. Docket "deposit shipped, tracking number" as a task separate from "application filed."
[ ] For group photographs, upload each image as a separate JPEG, GIF, or TIFF and supply the numbered list of titles and file names — with month and year of publication for each published image.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 202.4(h), (i). Build the list from image metadata, not by hand.
[ ] For group unpublished works, one complete copy of each work in its own file with matching titles, § 202.4(c). For two-dimensional artwork, individual files, not a zip, § 202.4(l). For news website updates, separate PDFs of the home page for each day, § 202.4(m). For databases, representative identifying material plus a descriptive statement, § 202.3(b)(5).
[ ] For three-dimensional or oversized works, prepare identifying material rather than the object.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 202.21.
[ ] For source code, pick one of the deposit options and confirm the proportionality rule before you redact.

| Option | Deposit | Cost | |---|---|---| | Default | First 25 and last 25 pages of source code, plus the notice page; entire code if under 50 pages | Full disclosure of 50 pages | | (i) | First 25 / last 25 pages with trade secret portions blocked out | Blocked material must be proportionately less than visible material, and appreciable original code must remain visible | | (ii) | First 10 / last 10 pages, nothing blocked | 20 pages fully exposed | | (iii) | First 25 / last 25 pages of object code plus 10+ consecutive unredacted source pages | Registration under the rule of doubt | | (iv) | Entire source code with trade secret portions blocked out (programs of 50 pages or fewer) | Same proportionality limit as (i) |

Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 202.20(c)(2)(vii). A rule-of-doubt registration carries the Office's express non-determination of copyrightable authorship, and courts have declined to give it the full § 410(c) weight. "The source is confidential" is not a reason not to register. The surrounding program is the Trade Secret Protection and Departure Checklist and Trade Secrets and the DTSA.
[ ] For a revised program, deposit 50 representative pages containing the revised material when the revisions are not in the first and last 25 pages.
- Trap. On a mature product the new code is never in the first and last 25 pages. A mechanical first-25/last-25 deposit for version 4.2 deposits almost nothing new and produces a certificate that does not reach the code you will sue over.
[ ] Archive the exact deposited file, its SHA-256 hash, the build or commit identifier, and the date, in a location that will outlive the matter.
- Why. A plaintiff who cannot produce what was actually deposited, and offers a later reconstruction, has a registration problem and a best-evidence problem at the same time. Torres-Negrón v. J & N Records, LLC, 504 F.3d 151, 158–59 (1st Cir. 2007); Kodadek v. MTV Networks, Inc., 152 F.3d 1209, 1212 (9th Cir. 1998); see Seiler v. Lucasfilm, Ltd., 808 F.2d 1316, 1319–21 (9th Cir. 1986).

Phase 8 — File, certify, pay, and buy speed if litigation is in view

[ ] Read the certification before you sign it, and sign as authorized agent when you are counsel — never as the claimant.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 409; 17 U.S.C. § 506(e) makes a knowing false representation of a material fact in a § 409 application a criminal offense. Prosecutions are vanishingly rare; the provision's real life is as a cross-examination exhibit.
[ ] Pay the correct fee and confirm the current schedule at 37 C.F.R. § 201.3 before quoting a client.

| Filing | Fee | |---|---| | Single application (electronic) | $45 | | Standard application (electronic) | $65 | | Paper application (Forms TX, VA, PA, SR, SE) | $125 | | Group photographs, published or unpublished | $55 | | Group unpublished works; two-dimensional artwork | $85 | | Group short online literary works; works on an album | $65 | | Group serials | $35 per issue | | Group newspapers / newsletters | $95 | | Group contributions to periodicals | $85 | | Preregistration | $200 | | Supplementary registration (electronic) | $100 | | Special handling — registration | $800 per claim | | First request for reconsideration | $350 | | Second request for reconsideration | $700 |

[ ] Request special handling whenever a written accusation is going out, litigation is contemplated, a customs matter is live, or a contract or financing deadline requires the certificate.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 201.3(d). An expedited claim is typically decided in about five business days.
- How. Certify facts, not conclusions: the identified unauthorized use, the party, the conduct, the start date, the district where suit will be filed, the § 411(a) obstacle under Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 586 U.S. 296, 301 (2019), and the date the § 507(b) limitations period expires. A one-line "needed for litigation" draws a request for more information and burns the speed you paid for.
- Trap. Special handling buys a decision, not a registration. If the claim is defective you learn about it in five days instead of five months — useful, but not a certificate. Where a demand letter is imminent, either wait for the certificate or send a letter that does not depend on one. Nothing in 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) requires a registration for a takedown. See Sending and Fighting a DMCA Takedown, the DMCA Takedown Notice Checklist, and The DMCA Safe Harbor.
[ ] Save three artifacts to the matter file the moment the system confirms: the confirmation screen or email showing the case number and date; a PDF of the application exactly as submitted; and the deposit file with its hash.
[ ] Docket the effective date of registration as a hard date, and docket the expected examination window so somebody notices when a claim goes quiet.
- The docketing discipline is Docketing Deadlines; running it without a docketing department is The Solo and Small Firm IP Practice Toolkit.

Mara, 5 November 2025. The group filings go in on the ordinary queue. For the single infringed photograph, counsel files a separate Standard application ($65) with a special handling request ($800) and a declaration reciting Halvorsen's 3 May start date, the Northern District of Illinois, and a § 507(b) expiry of 3 May 2028. The certificate issues on 14 November 2025 — nine days. It opens the courthouse door under § 411(a). It does not resurrect § 412, because the effective date of registration is 5 November and the infringement commenced on 3 May. The expedite bought a lawsuit, not a remedy. Both facts go in the client letter.

Phase 9 — Work the correspondence and the refusal ladder

[ ] Diary the response deadline stated in the Office's communication — commonly 45 days — the day it arrives.
- Trap. Miss it and the Office closes the file. There is no refund and no petition to revive.
[ ] Answer in the medium you were asked in, with the case number in the subject line, and answer the question that was asked.
[ ] When a registration specialist raises a scope question, answer it and propose the exact limitation-of-claim language you want printed on the certificate.
[ ] Do not let a claim be narrowed by acquiescence. If a proposed amendment converts a claim in "photographs" into a claim in "compilation," say so on the record and take an appealable refusal.
[ ] Match the refusal to the response.

| Refusal | Basis | What actually works | |---|---|---| | Words, short phrases, names, titles, slogans, familiar symbols | 37 C.F.R. § 202.1(a) | Usually correct. Redirect to trademark | | De minimis authorship | Feist, 499 U.S. at 345 | Name specific creative choices — lighting, selection, sequence, palette. Generalities lose | | Useful article; no separable authorship | Star Athletica, 580 U.S. at 417 | Show the feature is perceivable as art separate from the article and would qualify on its own. See Protecting Trade Dress and Trade Dress and the Functionality Doctrine | | Blank forms; common property | 37 C.F.R. § 202.1(c)–(d) | Original text, or original selection and arrangement, if it exists | | Ideas, systems, methods | 17 U.S.C. § 102(b) | Narrow to expression. See Proving Copyright Infringement | | No human authorship | Thaler, 130 F.4th 1039 | Disclaim the machine-generated material; claim human selection, arrangement, and modification | | Group ineligibility — wrong claimant, wrong window, over cap | 37 C.F.R. § 202.4 | Re-file correctly. Almost never worth appealing | | Deposit does not match the application | 37 C.F.R. § 202.20 | Supply the correct deposit and note the effective-date consequence |

[ ] For a copyrightability refusal worth fighting, file a first request for reconsideration within three months of the date on the refusal letter, and put every argument and every exhibit in it.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 202.5(b). Fee $350.
- Trap. Holding arguments back "for the appeal" is malpractice with a filing fee attached. The Board reviews the record you build here.
[ ] For a second refusal, file a second request to the Copyright Review Board within three months, and read the Board's published decisions in your subject-matter category first.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 202.5(c), (g). Fee $700. A Board decision on a second request is final agency action.
[ ] After the Board affirms, choose the objective: an APA action in district court under 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A) if you want the registration; a § 411(a) suit on notice to the Register if what you want is to sue the infringer.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 411(a) — the Register may intervene on registrability within sixty days after service.
- Why this is underused. A refused applicant who delivered the application, deposit, and fee in proper form is, on the § 411(a) question alone, better positioned than one still sitting in the queue.
[ ] Tell the client the filing date survives the fight. Section 410(d) fixes the effective date on the day the application, deposit, and fee later determined acceptable "by the Register of Copyrights or by a court of competent jurisdiction" were received. A reversal in month fourteen snaps the date back to the original filing day.
- The response habits here are the same ones in the Office Action Response Toolkit; the appellate posture rhymes with Taking an Ex Parte Appeal.

Phase 10 — Audit the certificate and clean up

[ ] Read every field on the certificate against the Phase 1 intake sheet, line by line, the week it arrives.
- Why. It is now prima facie evidence of the facts stated in it if registration was made before or within five years after first publication. 17 U.S.C. § 410(c). Excellent when the facts are right; a defense exhibit when they are not.
[ ] File a supplementary registration to correct or amplify anything wrong.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. § 408(d); 37 C.F.R. § 202.6. Fee $100 electronic.

| It CAN fix | It CANNOT | |---|---| | Spelling and typographical errors; author and claimant names and addresses | Change the content of the work | | Titles, including added subtitles or alternative titles | Correct errors in the deposit copies | | Omitted authors or claimants; an incomplete work-made-for-hire designation | Add a publication date for a work that was unpublished when filed | | Year of completion; date of publication; citizenship, domicile, nation of first publication | Reflect a change of ownership occurring on or after the basic registration's effective date | | Nature of Authorship, Limitation of Claim, Material Added fields | Cancel, abandon, or challenge the basic registration |

Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 202.6(d)(2)–(4); Compendium §§ 1802.6, 1802.7.
Trap. The supplementary registration gets its own number and its own effective date and cross-references the basic registration, which is not replaced. 37 C.F.R. § 202.6(f). Where the defect is a wrong deposit, a wrong publication answer, or the wrong version registered, supplementary registration cannot reach it — file a new basic registration and accept the new § 410(d) date.
[ ] Record any post-registration transfer under 17 U.S.C. § 205 — not by supplementary registration.
[ ] Record the certificate with U.S. Customs and Border Protection if imported goods are a risk.
- Authority. 19 C.F.R. §§ 133.31–133.37. Recordation requires a certificate; confirm the current fee at 19 C.F.R. § 133.33 on CBP's e-Recordation portal. See Stopping Counterfeits at the Border and the Anticounterfeiting and Border Enforcement Toolkit.
[ ] Put a proper copyright notice on published copies. It is free, and it forecloses the innocent-infringement mitigation for anyone with access to those copies.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. §§ 401(d), 402(d).
[ ] Add the registration number, effective date, deposit hash, and first publication date to a standing inventory.
- Adapt the portfolio inventory template; fold the review into an annual portfolio review. A buyer's diligence will test exactly these fields — see the IP Due Diligence Toolkit and Trademark Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions for the transactional frame. Where copyright sits in the wider program is the Brand Owner's Master Toolkit.

Phase 11 — Docket the litigation timeline

[ ] Record the effective date of registration and, next to it, the date the earliest known infringement commenced. Those two dates, in that order, are the case valuation.
[ ] Calendar the three-year limitations period under 17 U.S.C. § 507(b) from the earliest infringing act, and a second date from the date of discovery.
- Why. Every circuit to decide applies a discovery rule, and Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy, 601 U.S. 366, 371 (2024), lets a timely claim recover for the full period of infringement — but the Court expressly assumed the discovery rule without deciding it. Docket both dates and litigate on the earlier one.
[ ] Calendar the § 410(c) five-year presumption window and note in the file whether the registration landed inside it.
[ ] Flag, in writing to the client, whether statutory damages and fees are available on this work — and if they are not, say so in the same letter that reports the certificate.
- Why. A plaintiff who registered late is in a one-way fee posture: she cannot recover fees under 17 U.S.C. § 505, and she can be ordered to pay them. That belongs in the decision to sue, not in a post-mortem.
[ ] Where § 412 is lost, docket the alternatives before the client asks: a Copyright Claims Board proceeding (an application on file is enough to start; statutory damages capped at $7,500 per work and $15,000 per proceeding for untimely-registered works; respondent may opt out within sixty days), a 17 U.S.C. § 1202 claim if copyright management information was stripped, a contract claim, and platform takedowns.
- Authority. 17 U.S.C. §§ 1504(e)(1), 1505(a), 1506(i); 17 U.S.C. § 1203(c)(3)(B).
[ ] Set a standing quarterly filing cadence keyed to the earliest publication date in each batch, not to calendar convenience.
[ ] Hand the matter to litigation with the four documents it needs: the certificate, the application as submitted, the deposit file with its hash, and the intake sheet.
- Downstream: Copyright Infringement Complaint Checklist, Filing a Copyright Infringement Complaint in Federal Court, the Pre-Litigation Enforcement Checklist, Sending an Effective Cease-and-Desist Letter with the cease-and-desist template, and the Copyright Enforcement Toolkit. The defense that a perfect registration does nothing to prevent is Fair Use After Warhol and Running a Fair Use Analysis.

Common Mistakes

Asking when the client found out instead of when it started. Section 412 measures from commencement, and later acts in the same course of conduct inherit the first act's date.
Taking the publication date from the launch announcement. The delivery or distributor handoff usually happened weeks earlier, and it moves the three-month window with it.
Assuming unpublished works get a grace period. They do not. Clause (1) of § 412 has no runway at all.
Filing a Single application with an entity claimant. Disqualified on its face by 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b)(2)(i)(B).
Registering a "collection" as a unit of publication. Works released on different dates are not a single unit, and the applicant who understood that and filed anyway sits inside the exception to the § 411(b) safe harbor.
Checking the work-made-for-hire box for a contractor. The contract's recital does not create a category that 17 U.S.C. § 101 does not list.
Leaving Material Excluded blank. Either you overclaimed, or you registered something narrower than you think.
Registering software once. Version 1.0 does not cover the code written for 4.2, and 4.2 is what gets copied.
Depositing the first and last 25 pages of a mature codebase. The new code is in the middle. Deposit 50 representative pages containing it.
Filing electronically and never mailing the physical deposit. The § 410(d) date waits for the copies.
Not keeping the deposit. A reconstruction is a different work, and Torres-Negrón is the case about a plaintiff who could not produce what he registered.
Missing the correspondence deadline. The Office closes the file, keeps the fee, and there is no revival petition.
Appealing an eligibility refusal. Re-file. You lose the original date either way and reconsideration adds four months and $350.
Filing the certificate away unread. Every wrong field on it is now prima facie evidence against your own client.
Skipping special handling because $800 feels like a lot. It is less than one hour of the motion practice a premature complaint generates.

Deadlines at a Glance

Dates are Mara's. First publication 28 January 2025; infringement commenced 3 May 2025; discovered 20 September 2025; expedited filing 5 November 2025.

| Deadline | Rule | Mara's date | Extendable? | |---|---|---|---| | § 412 grace window — register within 3 months of first publication | 17 U.S.C. § 412(2) | 28 April 2025 | No | | Unpublished work — register before infringement commences | 17 U.S.C. § 412(1) | no window exists | No | | § 407 mandatory deposit — 3 months after U.S. publication | 17 U.S.C. § 407 | 28 April 2025 | Demand-driven | | Preregistration follow-up — earlier of 3 months after publication or 1 month after learning of infringement | 17 U.S.C. § 408(f)(4) | n/a | No | | § 410(c) presumption — register within 5 years of first publication | 17 U.S.C. § 410(c) | 28 January 2030 | No | | Copyright Office correspondence response | stated in the letter, commonly 45 days | as issued | No; file closes | | First request for reconsideration | 37 C.F.R. § 202.5(b) | 3 months from refusal letter | No | | Second request — Copyright Review Board | 37 C.F.R. § 202.5(c) | 3 months from the first-request decision | No | | Register's intervention after a § 411(a) refusal suit | 17 U.S.C. § 411(a) | 60 days from service | n/a | | CCB respondent opt-out | 17 U.S.C. § 1506(i) | 60 days from service | No | | Limitations — 3 years from the infringing act | 17 U.S.C. § 507(b) | 3 May 2028 | No | | Limitations — 3 years from discovery | 17 U.S.C. § 507(b); Nealy, 601 U.S. at 371 | 20 September 2028 | Unsettled |

Fees and processing times move. Confirm the schedule at 37 C.F.R. § 201.3 and the Office's current processing averages before every filing and every client estimate.