1106.1 (E) The Author and Claimant for Each Work Must Be the Same
All of the works in the group must be created by the same author or the same joint authors. For example, an applicant may submit ten songs created solely by Peter, or ten songs created jointly by Peter, Paul, and Mary.
By contrast, an applicant may not register five songs created by Peter together with five songs created by Peter, Paul, and Mary. In this situation, the applicant would need to separate the songs into two groups and submit a separate application for each group: one application for the songs created solely by Peter, and a separate application for the songs created jointly by Peter, Paul, and Mary.
In addition, the author or joint authors must be named as the copyright claimant for each work in the group. For instance, if an applicant submitted five songs created by Peter, that individual must be named as the claimant for each song. If an applicant submitted five songs jointly created by Peter, Paul, and Mary, those individuals must be named as co-claimants for each song.
To be clear, the author or co-authors must be named as the claimant or co-claimants for all of the works being registered – ” even if the author(s) do not own any of the rights in those works.
This facilitates the examination by allowing the registration specialist to focus on the works themselves, rather than the ownership of each work. Moreover, it is consistent with the basic principle that an author may always be named as the copyright claimant, and the Office’s longstanding view that an author may be named as a claimant even if that person does not own any of the exclusive rights when the claim is submitted. 37 C.F.R. § 202.3 (A) (3) (I); 42 Fed. Reg. 48,944, 48,945 (Sept. 26, 1977).
See generally Group Registration of Unpublished Works, 82 Fed. Reg. 47,415, 47,418 (Oct. 12, 2017).