The US Copyright Office just published notice of its intent to raise registration fees, beginning August 1, 2009, pending approval by Congress. It’s not exactly earth-shattering news, but something to be aware of for businesses that intend to register copyrights in the near future.
The Copyright Office published this rather brief report setting forth and explaining the proposed increases. The current fees are already reasonable, and so are the proposed increases. As explained in the report:
The Office has traditionally charged fees that recover less than the full cost of registration, with a goal of encouraging participation in the copyright process, thereby providing a comprehensive record of copyrighted works for the public’s use, and enhancing the Library of Congress collections with voluntarily deposited published works.
The current fees and proposed fees are set forth in a table at the end of the report. Relevant to most copyright registrations are these proposals:
- The fee for registration of a basic claim to copyright filed electronically will remain $35.
- Filing on a Form CO, which is filled out online, printed with 2D barcodes that contain the information from the application, and mailed to the Office, will increase from $45 to $50.
- Filing on traditional paper forms without barcodes will increase from $45 to $65.
In all likelihood, Congress will approve the proposal, so expect to pay a bit more for Copyright registrations filed after August 1.
Tags: copyright office, fees, registration
