621.9 (B) Identifying the Author of a Work That Contains an Appreciable Amount of Unclaimable Material
The applicant should provide the name of the author(s) who created the new material that the applicant intends to register. The applicant need not and should not provide the name of the author(s) who created any unclaimable material that may be included in the work.
An application may be accepted if it names both the author of the unclaimable material and the author of the new material, provided that the unclaimable material itself has been excluded from the claim. Identifying the author of the unclaimable material is considered superfluous in this situation. Likewise, an application may be accepted if the author of the new material and the author of the unclaimable material are named as co- claimants, provided that the work appears to be a joint work and provided that the application has been certified by the author of the new material or his or her authorized agent. Otherwise, the registration specialist will communicate with the applicant.