510 One Registration Per Work
As a general rule, the U.S. Copyright Office will issue only one basic registration for each work. 37 C.F.R. § 202.3 (B) (11); H.R. REP. NO. 94-1476, at 155, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5771; S. REP. NO. 94-473, at 138 (recognizing that there is a “general rule against allowing more than one registration (i.e., basic registration) for the same work”).
Allowing multiple registrations for the same work confuses the public record. Therefore, the Office will not knowingly issue multiple registrations for the same version of a particular work, and the Office generally will decline to issue additional registrations once a basic registration has been made. See Part 202– “Registration of Claims to Copyright, 43 Fed. Reg. 965, 965-66 (Jan. 5, 1978); Applications for Registration of Claim to Copyright Under Revised Copyright Act, 42 Fed. Reg. 48,944, 48,945 (Sept. 26, 1977).
There are three limited exceptions to this rule, which are discussed in Sections 510.1 through 510.3.