621.9 (F) (3) Claim in De Minimis Material: Works Created by Two or More Authors
If two or more authors are named in the application, and if it appears that one of the authors contributed only a de minimis amount of authorship, the specialist will communicate with the applicant. If the applicant confirms that the author did not make a copyrightable contribution to the work, the specialist will ask for permission to remove that author’s name from the registration record.