610.6 (A) Untitled Works
The applicant should not provide “Untitled,” “No Title,” “Working Title,” “No title yet,” or the like as the title of the work. It may be extremely difficult to find a work that has been registered under a generic title.
If the work is unpublished and if the author has not selected a title for the work as of the date that the application is submitted, the applicant should provide a descriptive title that identifies the author of the work, the general subject matter of the work, the type of work submitted for registration, or any other relevant information that a person searching the U.S. Copyright Office’s records would likely include in his or her search request.
Examples:
• Sculpture of a Green Frog, Preliminary Study in Clay by Quang Ha (Spring 2008).
• Painting on Illustration Board by Imran Latif (2010).
• Photo Taken at Sand Hill Cove, Narragansett, Rhode Island by Ann McKenna (2012).
• Working Title: Zuzu’s Petals.
If the author decides to change the title after the work has been registered, the applicant may file an application for a supplementary registration to add the new title in the online public record. For guidance on this procedure, see Chapter 1800, Section 1802. If a previously registered, unpublished work is later published with a new title, the applicant may choose to reflect the new title by filing an application for a new basic registration for the first published edition of the work. (This is permissible even if the published edition is exactly the same as the previously registered, unpublished edition.) For information concerning this practice, see Chapter 500, Section 510.1.