1111 Group Registration of Short Online Literary Works
This Section discusses the U.S. Copyright Office’s practices and procedures for registering a group of short online literary works. When referring to this option, the Office uses the term “GRTX.”
GRTX is intended to benefit individual writers who create short-form works that are published on websites or online platforms that are typically updated on a daily basis.
When the Office receives a group of short online literary works, it will examine each work to determine if it contains a sufficient amount of copyrightable text, and to confirm that the legal and formal requirements for registration have been met. A group registration covers the copyrightable text in each literary work that is submitted for registration, and each literary work is registered as a separate work. 37 C.F.R. § 202.4(j), (n).
If the Office determines that one or more of the works is uncopyrightable, it will refuse to register those works, and issue a registration for the remaining copyrightable works in the group (if any). Id. § 202.4(l). If the applicant disagrees with the refusal, the applicant may appeal that decision by filing a request for reconsideration. For information concerning this procedure, see Chapter 1700.
See generally Group Registration of Short Online Literary Works, 83 Fed. Reg. 65,612 (Dec. 21, 2018); Group Registration of Short Online Literary Works, 85 Fed. Reg. 37,341 (June 22, 2020).