1009.2 Title of This Work
The applicant should provide the title of the content that will be submitted for registration, including any subtitles. When completing an online application, the applicant should provide this information on the Title screen in the field marked Title of This Work. When completing a paper application, the applicant should provide this information on space 1 of the application.
The Office strongly encourages applicants to provide a title for each work that will be submitted. Interested parties typically search for works by title and it may be extremely difficult to find a particular work if the applicant fails to provide that information in the application. If the author has not selected a formal title for the content, the applicant may provide a descriptive title that identifies the author of the content, the type of content that the author created, or other pertinent information that can be reasonably identified in a search of the U.S. Copyright Office’s online database.
Examples:
• Zehra Salim owns a website called “Zehra's Art Store,” which sells art supplies. Zehra created a logo for the site that features a paint brush superimposed on a compass. To register this logo the applicant may provide a descriptive title, such as “Logo artwork for Zehra's Art Store,” “Paint brush / compass logo for Zehra's Art Store,” or the like.
• Cristine Prelle owns a fan website called “Wild About Oscar,” which celebrates the career of Oscar Wilde. To register the entire content of her website, Christine may provide the URL for the site or a descriptive title for the site as a whole, such as “Oscar Wilde fan website.”
The electronic registration system will accept titles consisting of Roman letters and/or Arabic numerals, but it will not accept a title that has been underlined. When providing a URL as the title for a website, the applicant may include the suffix that identifies for top level domain name for the site, such as .com, .net, or .org, but applicants should not include the prefixes”www,” “http://” or other generic introductory phrases.
Examples:
• PetSupplies.com.
• Backtoschool.org (2012 version).
• Irvington Historical Society website.
For additional guidance in completing the title field/space of the application, see Chapter 600, Section 610.