605.8 Procedure for Reopening a Closed Application
If the applicant failed to respond to a written communication from the U.S. Copyright Office in a timely manner, and if the failure was caused by extraordinary circumstances, the Office may, in appropriate cases and at its sole discretion, grant a request to reopen the file, provided that (i) the request is made in writing and within a reasonable amount of time after the original deadline; (ii) a showing of good cause is made; and (iii) the Office has the deposit copy(ies) in its possession, or replacement deposit copy(ies) are submitted with a written declaration confirming that the replacement is identical to the deposit copy(ies) that were submitted with the application, including the copyright notice (if appropriate).
By way of example, the Office will not reopen a closed file if the applicant provided an incorrect email address or out-of-date contact information in the application. Likewise, the Office will not reopen a closed file if the applicant failed to monitor his or her “in box” or “spam,” “junk,” or “trash” folders for messages from the Office, or failed to
ensure that the “spam filter” for his or her account does not block messages sent from
the email addresses listed in Section 605.3 (A).
A request to reopen should be submitted using the form provided on the Office’s website. An appropriate official from the Registration Program will determine whether the Office will reopen the file and will notify the applicant in writing of the Office’s decision. The Office will not consider multiple requests to reopen a claim that was closed for failure to respond in a timely manner.