621.9 (A) (1) Works Containing Uncopyrightable Material or a Minimal Amount of Unclaimable Material
As discussed in Section 621.2, if a work contains only a minimal amount of unclaimable material, the New Material Included, Material Excluded, and Previous Registration fields may be left blank in the online application, or spaces 5, 6 (A), and/or 6 (B) may be left blank in a paper application. Likewise, there is no need to complete these portions of the application if the work contains material that is not copyrightable.
Examples:
• An online application is submitted for a 500-page catalog. A statement on the deposit copy indicates that the text and photographs on pages 390– “395 appeared in an earlier edition of the catalog, but the rest of the content is new. The Limitation of Claim screen may be left blank, because the work does not contain an appreciable amount of previously published material.
• An online application is submitted for a comedy sketch. The applicant asserts a claim in “text.” In the Note to Copyright Office field, the applicant explains that “the characters in this work are loosely based on two well-known television
personalities.” The New Material Included/Material Excluded fields may be left blank, because it appears that the author merely borrowed ideas, themes, or other uncopyrightable material from another work.