Under the 1909 copyright law, works copyrighted in the United States
before January 1, 1978, were subject to a renewal system in which the
term of copyright was divided into two consecutive 28-year terms. To secure
the renewal protection, the claimant had to file a renewal registration
within strict time limits. However, since January 1, 2006, all applications
for renewal have necessarily related to works which, due to automatic
renewal, are already in their renewal terms, making impossible any renewal
in the 28th year.
Consequently, the Office issued a notice of a proposed rulemaking to
amend its regulations to account for these facts and to clarify certain
renewal requirements (72 FR 16306). The Copyright Office has received
no opposition to its proposal. Thus the Office is issuing a final rule
incorporating the proposed revisions to 37 CFR 202.17. (Read further
information.)
Any applications for registration of claims to the renewal term must
be filed using the newly revised forms. The previously used forms are
obsolete, and the new forms must be used to file renewal claims. The new
forms are Form
RE for renewal, Form
RE/CON for additional information, and Form
RE/Addendum for works not registered during the original term.
![Calendar](../../images/nn_hdr_calendar.jpg)
November 1 |
Effective date of amended rules governing applications
for registration of claims for renewal term of copyright
(more) |
January 1, 2008 |
Effective date of specialty station list
published on October 23, 2007 (more) |