Changes to Submitted Copyright Registration Application

 

This is the second of several blogs that describe the actual process of attempting to secure copyright registration for a work that contains both human-authored content and AI-generated content.

As noted in the first blog, the disclosure of AI-generated materials is a critical requirement in the copyright registration process. The initial challenge in this process was figuring out how best to distinguish human-authored contributions that can be awarded copyright protection from AI-generated content that will not be granted copyright protection.

Submission of Application

In mid-February an eCO (Electronic Copyright Office) standard application was submitted to register a work that was created by our company. Both AI-generated content and human-authored content were disclosed in the “Limitations of Claim” section of the application based on vague directions, at best. After submitting the application and doing more research to try to figure out how information should be presented, we decided we should attempt to be more clear on what was disclosed.

Fortunately, the submission instructions indicated that a Change Request may be sent to the US Copyright Office at copyinfo@copyright.gov, which we did within a day or two of submitting the application.

Clarification

We quickly received a reply to our Change Request from a Senior Information Specialist at the US Copyright Office. The specialist referred us to page 5 of the US Copyright Office issued Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence for guidance.  Since we started with this document we didn’t find that to be much help.

But the reply also provided key clarification. The information provided on the Limitation of Claims page should only identify the types of expression such as “text, “two-dimensional artwork,” and “photographs.” The information provided should not be detailed descriptions of excluded or included material. And the reply also provided detailed instructions for how and what to include in the change request.

A “Change Request – artificial intelligence” email was sent with the new language. Within hours an automated reply was received acknowledging the request. It indicated our request had been copied and annotated to our application submission to bring this matter to the attention of the registration specialist processing our application. We also were asked to monitor our email in case the registration specialist communicates with us about our request.

@TheCopyrightDetective is the handle used to identify Dr. C. Daniel Miller on social media, and the name is federally registered as a trademark.

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