Under Section 201 of the Copyright Act, copyright in work initially vests in the work’s author or authors. The author, however, is not always the party who claims ownership of the copyright when federal registration of the work is sought. Section 409 of the Copyright Act requires a copyright claimant to provide the claimant’s name and address in an application for copyright registration. If the claimant is not the author, a brief statement of how the claimant obtained ownership of the copyright.
What is a Copyright Claimant?
Unfortunately, the Copyright Act does not expressly define “copyright claimant.” However, shortly after the Copyright Act was enacted, the Copyright Office published interim regulations that included a definition of “copyright claimant” for purposes of copyright registration. Under Chapter 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations, a copyright claimant is either: (i) the author of a work; or (ii) a person or organization that has obtained ownership of all rights under the copyright initially belonging to the author. The latter category, offered as a footnote in the Federal Regulations, which may soon be removed, includes a person or organization that has obtained, from the author or from an entity that has obtained ownership of all rights under the copyright initially belonging to the author, the contractual right to claim legal title to the copyright in an application for copyright registration. See 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(a)(3).
As the definition indicates, when the copyright claimant is not the author of the work, the party claiming ownership must have obtained all rights in the work that initially belonged to the author. Further, as case law suggests, a ‘copyright “claimant’ in whose name registration is made “must be either the author of the work or one who obtained ownership of the copyright, not merely one who obtained ownership of certain exclusive rights under the copyright.” Morris v. Business Concepts, Inc., 259 F.3d 65, 72 (2nd Cir.2001); see also Bean v. McDougal Littell, 669 F. Supp. 2d 1031, 1035 (D. Ariz. 2008) (further quoting Morris in that “the copyright’ claimant’ for purposes of copyright registration is the author of the work for which registration is sought or a person or organization that has obtained ownership of all rightsunder the copyright initially belonging to the author”).
In a previous blog post, we discussed that publishers, studios, and producers would often incorporate language into a written agreement by assignment or license to obtain ownership in the copyright of a work. However, in some agreements, the assignment or license does not effectively transfer all rights under the copyright from the author to the organization. Consequently, when the publisher, studio, or producer applies for copyright registration on behalf of the author, it incorrectly marks itself as the copyright claimant, believing that all rights have been transferred, when that is not the case.
What happens if the publisher, studio, or producer puts down the wrong claimant on the application for copyright registration?
The fear is that if there is ever a dispute regarding the work (i.e., claim for copyright infringement against a third party), the copyright registration will be held invalid, which could have drastic implications for the copyright holder, including the author as well as the publisher, studio, or producer. In many circumstances, a valid copyright registration, or certificate of registration, is evidence that both the copyright is valid and that the copyright claimant owns the copyright. However, courts may find a registration invalid if the copyright claimant willfully misstated or failed to state a fact that, if known, might have caused the Copyright Office to reject the application for copyright registration.
However, Courts have held that an innocent misstatement or error, absent of fraud, does not invalidate the copyright. In Wales Industrial Inc. v. Hasbro Bradley, Inc., 612 F.Supp. 510, 515 (S.D.N.Y.1985), the Court held that an exclusive licensee erroneously identified itself on the copyright registration as the ‘copyright claimant,’ that the alleged error didn’t invalidate the registration. Once a Court determines that an error was innocent, it will see if the error was immaterial. An error is immaterial if its discovery is not likely to have resulted in the Copyright Office’s rejection of the application for copyright registration. Consequently, in most cases, innocently identifying the wrong copyright claimant on an application for copyright registration will not invalidate the copyright registration or certificate of registration.
In any case, the publisher, studio, or producer needs to make sure that if it intends to transfer all rights in a copyright from an author to itself that it has a written agreement between the author and itself, which includes the necessary language to confer all rights in the copyright. As set forth under Section 204 of the Copyright Act, such a written agreement is required to constitute a valid transfer. It will allow the publisher, studio, or producer to mark itself as a claimant in the application for copyright registration. This will help avoid unnecessary litigation and its associated expenses arising out of the validity of the copyright registration and whether the misstatement of identity to the copyright claimant was fraudulent and material or simply an innocent and immaterial error.