1112.4 Eligibility Requirements
An applicant may use this group registration option to register a group of updates or revisions to a database, provided that the following conditions have been met:
• The updates or revisions must be original works of authorship.
• The updates or revisions must be added to a database as defined in Section 1112.1.
• All the updates or revisions to the database must have the same general title.
• The subject and general content of the updates or revisions must be similar.
• The organization of the updates or revisions must be similar.
• All the updates or revisions must be owned by the same copyright claimant.
In addition, the applicant must satisfy the following conditions if the database is unpublished:
• The database and/or the updates or revisions to the database must be fixed solely in machine-readable copies.
• The database and/or the updates or revisions must be created within a three-month period within a single calendar year (e.g., February 1, 2007 through April 30, 2007; May 1, 2008 through July 31, 2008; September 1, 2009 through November 30, 2009).
If the database has been published, the applicant must satisfy the following conditions:
• The database and/or the updates or revisions must be published solely in machine- readable copies.
• The database and/or the updates or revisions must be published within a three- month period within a single calendar year (e.g., June 1, 2011 through August 31, 2011; July 1, 2010 through September 30, 2010; September 1, 2012 through November 30, 2012).
• If the database was published before March 1, 1989, each update or revision must bear a separate copyright notice, the notice must contain the copyright owner’s name (or an abbreviation by which the owner can be recognized or a generally known alternative designation for the owner), and the name that appears in each notice must be the same.
See 37 C.F.R. § 202.3 (B) (5) (I) (A)- (F).
Databases, updates, or revisions that do not satisfy these requirements cannot be registered using this group registration option.