1114.6(K) Identifying the Copyright Claimant
To register a group of photographs, the applicant should provide the name and address of the copyright claimant. See 17 U.S.C. § 409 (1). As discussed in Section 1114.1, the claimant for all the photos must be the same person or organization.
For purposes of copyright registration, the claimant must be (I) the author of the photos, or (ii) the person or organization that owns all of the rights under copyright that initially belonged to the author. See 37 C.F.R. § 202.3 (A) (3).
When naming the author as the copyright claimant, the applicant should provide the author’s name and address on the Claimants screen. This information should be provided in the field marked “Individual Claimant” if the author is an individual photographer, or if the photos were created for an individual as a work made for hire. If the photos were created for a legal entity, this information should be provided in the field marked “Organization.”
Alternatively, the applicant may provide the name and address of the person or organization that owns the copyright in all of the photos.
If the author and the claimant are not the same person or entity, the applicant should provide a brief statement that explains how the claimant obtained ownership of the copyright. To do so, the applicant should select one of the statements listed in the drop down menu marked Transfer Statement. If these statements do not fully describe the transfer, the applicant may provide a more specific statement in the field marked Transfer Statement Other. The total amount of text that may be provided in this field is limited to 100 characters.
For additional guidance on completing the claimant fields, see Chapter 600, Section 619.12. For guidance on completing the transfer fields, see Chapter 600, Section 620.9.