504.1 Copyrightable Authorship vs. Uncopyrightable Material
A registration covers the copyrightable authorship that the author or co-authors contributed to the work, but it does not cover any uncopyrightable material that appears in the work.
If the applicant expressly asserts a claim in uncopyrightable material, the registration specialist may communicate with the applicant. In the alternative, the specialist may remove the uncopyrightable term from the application and register the claim with an annotation indicating that the registration does not cover that material. See Chapter 600, Section 604. The annotation is intended to put the copyright owner, the courts, and the general public on notice concerning the extent of the claim. That said, a registration does not extend to uncopyrightable material that appears in a work of authorship, even if the registration does not contain an annotation or even if it contains ambiguous language that may refer to uncopyrightable material.