Supplementary registration is used to correct or amplify the information in an existing registration. This circular provides an introduction to supplementary registration. It covers

1. What supplementary registration adds to the public record
2. When supplementary registration is appropriate
3. Who can file a supplementary registration
4. How to file a supplementary registration

For more information, see chapter 1800, section 1802 of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices.

Supplementary registration is a special type of registration that may be used to correct an error in a copyright registration or to amplify the information given in a registration. Supplementary registration can be filed for basic registrations issued on or after January 1, 1978, or a renewal registration for a work that was registered or first published on or before December 31, 1977. As discussed below, only certain limited issues may be corrected or amplified through supplementary registration.

Supplementary registration does not cancel or replace the original registration or the registration number. Nor does it change or remove the information contained in the original registration. Instead, supplementary registration adds information to the public record, and it augments—but does not supersede—the information in the original registration. The Office will issue a new certificate and registration number for the supplementary registration, and the original and supplementary registrations will be linked in the Office's public catalog.

NOTE: In general, the Office issues one registration per work and will refuse registration when a second basic registration is submitted for the same version of the work. Supplementary registration is the only legal mode permitting authors and claimants to augment the registration with a correction or amplification.

Correction and Amplification

A supplementary registration may be used either to correct or to amplify information in a registration.

A correction is appropriate if information in the original registration was incorrect at the time that registration was made. Examples: the original registration identified the wrong author of the work, or the work was registered as published when publication had not taken place. A supplementary registration is not necessary for minor errors, such as typographical mistakes, the omission of an address that appears elsewhere on the certificate, or the addition of the articles “a,” “an,” or “the.”

“Amplifications” fall into three general categories:

1. Additional information that could have been included in the original registration but was omitted when the registration was issued by the Copyright Office (Example: a coauthor was omitted)

2. Changes in certain facts that have occurred since the Copyright Office issued the original registration (Example: a change in the title of the work)

3. Explanations that clarify information given in the original registration (Example: statement of authorship in the version being registered was not sufficiently explicit on the original application)

Appropriate Supplementary Registration Situations

A supplementary registration may be appropriate in the following situations:

1. To correct the spelling of a name or title.
2. To reflect a change in name or address.

NOTE: Filing a supplementary registration for a change of name, address, or other personally identifiable information (PII) does not remove the prior information from the public record. For information regarding the procedure for removing or replacing PII from the online record, see Privacy: Copyright Public Records (Circular 18).

1. To add a subtitle or a previous or alternate title of the work.
2. To reflect a change in the title of the work.
3. To add a missing author or provide the name of the correct author.
4. To add the author’s real name to a registration for a pseudonymous or anonymous work.
5. To provide complete work made for hire details. For more information on this concept, see Works Made for Hire (Circular 30).
6. To add the name of a co-claimant who should have been listed in the application when the Copyright Office issued the original registration.
7. To correct the year of completion or date of publication, as long as the corrected information is the same as, or earlier than, the effective date of registration for the original registration.
8. To correct the author’s citizenship/domicile or first nation of publication, based on the facts that existed at the time the Copyright Office issued the original registration.
9. To clarify that a work registered as published was unpublished at the time of the original registration.
10. To clarify the claim to copyright described in the nature of authorship or limitation of claim areas of the application.

The Office may request documentation related to your supplementary registration, especially when the correction or amplification implicates authorship, ownership, or eligibility for registration. For more information, as well as examples of situations where supplementary registration is appropriate, see chapter 1800, section 1802.6 of the Compendium.

Inappropriate Supplementary Registration Situations

A supplementary registration cannot be used in the following situations:

1. To alter an annotation made on the certificate.
2. To reflect the division, license, or transfer of rights in the work.

NOTE: To reflect a division, license, or transfer of rights in a registered work, you should record the assignment, license, or other legal document that transferred the copyright from one party to another. For more information, see chapter 2300, section 2309 of the Compendium.

1. To add a date of publication to the original registration for an unpublished work.

NOTE: If a published work was erroneously registered as unpublished, the date of publication may be added if (1) the work was published after March 1, 1989, and (2) the deposit requirement for the registered work would be the same regardless of whether the work was published or unpublished when the Copyright Office issued the basic registration.

1. To address an error or omission appearing in a deposit copy, or to add new material to a deposit copy.
2. To add or correct the copyright notice on a deposit copy
3. To cancel or abandon a registration. For more information on abandonment, see chapter 2300, section 2311 of the Compendium. For information on cancellation, see chapter 1800, section 1807 of the Compendium.
4. To question or challenge the validity of a basic registration.

For more information, as well as examples of situations where supplementary registration is inappropriate, see chapter 1800, section 1802.7 of the Compendium.

Who May File a Supplementary Registration?

You may file a supplementary registration if you are:

1. The author of the work.
2. The claimant (the owner who owns all of the rights that initially belonged to the author).
3. The owner of one or more—but fewer than all—of the exclusive rights in the work.
4. The agent of the author, claimant, or owner of fewer than all rights.

No one else may file an application for supplementary registration.

Filing a Supplementary Registration

A supplementary registration may be made at any time after the Copyright Office issued the original registration and may address multiple errors or missing information in the same application. A supplementary registration addresses the registration record for one original registration and cannot be used to correct or amplify the same information across multiple registrations.

To submit a supplementary registration, you will need to complete an application and pay a filing fee. You also must certify that you reviewed the information set forth in the certificate of registration for the original registration. In certain circumstances, you may also be asked to provide a photocopy of the front and back of this certificate.

NOTE: Copyright Office fees are subject to change. For current fees, see Copyright Office Fees (Circular 4) or call the Office at (202) 707-3000 or 1-877-476-0778 (toll free).

You will need to submit your supplementary registration application online if you are correcting or amplifying the information in a registration for any work that may be registered through the online system:

1. A literary work, single issue of a serial publication, work of the visual arts, work of the performing arts, or sound recording.
2. A collective work, works registered under the unit of publication option, and works registered as an unpublished collection.
3. Registrations for groups of serials, newspapers, newsletters, groups of published photographs, group registration of contributions to periodicals, or groups of updates and revisions to a photographic database.

If you attempt to use a paper application to supplement any of these registrations, the Office will ask you to resubmit the claim using the online application. You will need to submit the application with a new fee, and this delay will affect your effective date of registration.

You must submit a paper form CA to correct or amplify the information for:

1. A renewal registration for works published or registered before January 1, 1978.
2. A GATT registration.
3. A group registration for a non-photographic database.

In exceptional circumstances, the Office may waive the online-filing requirement. You must submit a request to waive the online-filing requirement in writing. It should explain why you are unable to use the online application and should be sent to:

Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Registration Policy and Practice

Registration Program

U.S. Copyright Office

101 Independence Avenue SE

Washington, DC 20559

Online Supplementary Registration

To complete a supplementary registration online, you will need to create a username and password for the Office's online filing system. When you log in, you will click the "supplementary registration" link on the left side of the screen to begin the application. When completing the application, you will be asked to:

1. Provide the original registration number and year. The registration number typically begins with two or three letters, such as "VA" or "VAU," while the registration year appears under the heading marked "effective date of registration."

2. Identify the type of work previously registered. To identify your work(s), you will select from a drop-down list. Read the descriptions that appear on the screen and select the category that best describes the work or works covered by the basic registration.

3. Provide the missing or corrected information. Complete each screen that appears in the online application. Provide all of the information that should have been included in the basic registration when it was issued by the Copyright Office.
4. Provide an explanation for the correction or amplification. Provide a brief statement identifying and explaining the reason for the correction or amplification.

For more information on completing the online application, see chapter 1800, Section 1802.8(A) of the Compendium.

Paper Supplementary Registration

To complete a supplementary registration by paper, you will submit the following:

1. A completed Form CA

2. The nonrefundable filing fee in the form of a check or money order payable to the U.S. Copyright Office. Do not send cash. Mail to:

Library of Congress

Copyright Office

101 Independence Avenue SE

Washington, DC 20559

For more information on completing the paper application, see chapter 1800, Section 1802.8(B) of the Compendium.

Original Certificate of Registration

You do not need to submit a copy of the original certificate of registration being corrected or amplified by the supplementary registration. During examination, the Office will review a scanned copy of the certificate. If the supplementary registration corrects or amends a registration that has not been scanned by the Office, the Office will ask you to provide a copy of the original certificate of registration. If you are unable to do so, the Office will charge an additional fee to make a copy of the original registration.

Records That Cannot be Corrected or Amplified with a Supplementary Registration

As mentioned above, a supplementary registration may be used only to correct or amplify a basic registration issued after January 1, 1978, or a renewal registration for a work that was registered or first published on or before December 31, 1977. Therefore, a supplementary registration cannot be used for:

1. Pending applications. NOTE: If you discover an error or omission in a pending registration, submit a request to address the error or omission on the Office's website or inform the registration specialist during the course of correspondence.

2. Withdrawn or refused applications

3. Errors appearing solely in the online public record.

   NOTE: If there is an error in the online public record that does not appear in the certificate of registration, submit a request to address the error on the Office's website.

4. Previous supplementary registrations.
5. Preregistrations. NOTE: If there is an error or omission in a preregistration, file a new application for a new preregistration that contains the correct or missing information. If the work has been completed, submit an application for a basic registration. For more information on preregistration, see chapter 1600 of the Compendium.
6. Certificates of registration for mask works or vessel designs. NOTE: For information on correcting errors or omissions on a certificate of registration for a mask work, see chapter 1200, section 1216 of the Compendium. For similar information with regards to certificates for a vessel design, see chapter 1300, section 1317.
7. Recorded documents. NOTE: For the procedure for correcting an error in a recorded document, see chapter 2300, section 2308 of the Compendium.

Effective Date of Registration

When the U.S. Copyright Office issues a certificate of supplementary registration, the Office assigns it an effective date of registration. The effective date of registration is the day on which an acceptable application and filing fee have all been received in the Office. As a general rule, if the applicant makes a reasonable good faith effort to complete the application and to identify the basic registration that needs to be corrected or amplified, the effective date of registration will be the date that the Office received the supplementary registration application with the appropriate filing fee.

The effective date of registration for the basic registration and the effective date of registration for the supplementary registration will coexist with each other in the registration record. The Office maintains both records to allow courts to decide whether the changes made by the supplementary registration are material and whether those changes should or should not be deemed effective as of the date that the basic registration was made.

---NOTE

1. This circular is intended as an overview of supplementary registration. The authoritative source for U.S. copyright law is the Copyright Act, codified in Title 17 of the United States Code. Copyright Office regulations are codified in Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Copyright Office practices and procedures are summarized in the third edition of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, cited as the Compendium. The copyright law, regulations, and the Compendium are available on the Copyright Office website at www.copyright.gov.

For Further Information

By Internet

The copyright law, the Compendium, electronic registration, application forms, regulations, and related materials are available on the Copyright Office website at www.copyright.gov.

By Email

To send an email inquiry, click the Contact Us link on the Copyright Office website.

By Telephone

For general information, call the Copyright Public Information Office at (202) 707-3000 or 1-877-476-0778 (toll free). Staff members are on duty from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, eastern time, Monday through Friday, except federal holidays. To request application forms or circulars by postal mail, call (202) 707-9100 or 1-877-476-0778 and leave a recorded message.

By Regular Mail

Write to

Library of Congress

U.S. Copyright Office

Outreach and Education Section

101 Independence Avenue, SE #6304

Washington, DC 20559-6304