602.6 General Policy Regarding Location of Information
The information that the applicant provides to the U.S. Copyright Office should be provided in the appropriate field of the online application or space of the paper application.
If the applicant provides the required information in the application, but the information does not appear in the correct field or space, the registration specialist may register the claim, provided that the claim is clear. In the alternative, the specialist may correct the application by placing the information in the appropriate field or space, provided it is clear what information belongs in what field or space.
As a general rule, the specialist will not annotate the registration record if information appears in the wrong field or space of the application, but may do so if the required information appears elsewhere in the registration materials (i.e., in the deposit copy(ies) but not in the application). For a discussion regarding annotations, see Section 604 below.
Examples:
• Denero Poe submits an online application for a t-shirt design, which is based on a previous design that was registered in 2004. The registration number for the previous design should be provided in the Previous Registration field, but the applicant provided that information in the New Material Included field. The registration specialist may move the previous registration number to the correct field without communicating with the applicant.
• A paper application is submitted for a work titled Without a Doubt – ” The Worst Day of My Life. In a cover letter the applicant states that the work was published on January 26, 2012. The Date of First Publication field has been left blank. If there is no evidence to suggest that the date provided in the cover letter is incorrect, the registration specialist will add that information to the Date of Publication field and will insert an annotation, such as: “Regarding publication: Publication date added from cover letter.”