2138.1 Appropriate Use of Supplementary Registration
With regard to renewal registration records, supplementary registration is generally appropriate to correct or amplify extremely minor errors or omissions, or to provide updated contact information. See 37 C.F.R. § 202.6 (D) (5). Such information may include:
• New or alternate titles or other identifying information for the work.
• Pseudonyms, fuller name forms, legal name changes or other identifying information by which an author or vested or current owner was or is now known.
• Current addresses and contact information for vested or current owners, and rights and permission holders.
• Incorrect spelling or punctuation.
In exceptional cases, supplementary registration may be appropriate to correct the identity of a statutory renewal claimant or vested owner if “clear, convincing, and objective documentation is submitted to the Copyright Office which proves that an inadvertent error was made in failing to designate the correct living statutory renewal claimant in the basic renewal registration.” Id. Such documentation may consist of a death or marriage certificate, a published obituary or death notice, a will, a court order, or an assignment or other legal agreement or document of transfer.
Supplementary registration may also be appropriate to correct the basis of claim for a statutory renewal claimant or vested owner. See id. Again, the Office may require documents to prove that the basis is accurately stated and appears to be valid. In these exceptional cases, the Office may require that the supporting documentation be recorded. In such cases, a reference to the recorded document will be added to the certificate of supplementary registration and to the supplementary registration record.
NOTE: Supplementary registration is not appropriate to identify additional statutory renewal claimants or vested owners in a renewal registration record, except in exceptional cases when the renewal registration record fails to identify a party who was entitled to claim the renewal copyright. See Section 2138.3.
On a case-by-case basis, supplementary registration may also be appropriate to correct current owner information or other information, such as the means by which, or the party from whom, that owner obtained the renewal copyright. It may also be used to amplify the renewal registration record by providing current contact information for this party.