621.9 (D) (5) Claim Clarified by Information Provided in the Deposit Copy(ies)
If the applicant fails to complete the New Material Included and/or Material Excluded fields in an online application or fails to complete spaces 6 (A) and/or 6 (B) on a paper application, the application may be accepted if the scope of the claim is clearly defined by the deposit copy(ies). If so, the registration specialist may register the claim without communicating with the applicant, or may add an annotation to clarify the scope of the claim, if appropriate.
Examples:
• An online application is submitted for a musical work. In the Author Created field the applicant asserts a claim in “music” and “lyrics.” The work contains some new lyrics and some text taken from the King James Bible, but the Limitation of Claim screen is blank. Because the Biblical text is clearly in the public domain, the registration specialist may register the claim with an annotation, such as: “Regarding authorship information: Copy contains some Biblical text.”
• An online application is submitted for an anthology of short stories by the same author. In the Author Created field the applicant asserts a claim in “text.” The deposit copy states that two of the stories were previously published in the New Yorker, but the Limitation of Claim screen is blank. The registration specialist may register the claim with an annotation, such as: “Regarding authorship information: Statement on deposit copy indicates some text previously published.”
• An online application is submitted for a travel guide. In the Author Created field, the applicant asserts a claim in “photograph(s)” and “text.” The captions for two of the photographs state “photo by Susan Trainer, used with permission,” but the Limitation of Claim screen is blank. The registration specialist may register the claim with an annotation, such as: “Regarding authorship information: Statement on copy indicates some photographs used with permission.”