Page:Highlights of Copyright Amendments Contained in the URAA Circular 38B Rev07-2006.djvu/4

4 · Highlights of Copyright Amendments in URAA

the owner. The agency relationship must be established in writing and signed by the owner before the NIE is filed.

The NIE must include a certification statement indicating that the information given is correct to the best of the filer's knowledge. Any material false statement knowingly made with respect to any restored copyright identified in an NIE shall void all claims and assertions against reliance parties made about such restored copyright. The certification statement is found on the sample format.

Fee

The nonrefundable fee^* for filing an NIE covers a notice including one work. For a notice covering multiple works, there is an additional fee for each group of 10 titles. The fee includes the cost of an acknowledgement of recordation, which will be mailed to the filer after the Copyright Office records the NIE. The fee may be paid by any of the following methods:

1. Checks, money orders, or bank drafts made payable to Register of Copyrights. Remittances must be redeemable without service or exchange fees through a U.S. institution, must be payable in U.S. dollars, and must be imprinted with American Banking Association routing numbers. Currency, international money orders, and postal money orders that are negotiable only at a post office are not acceptable.
2. Copyright Office deposit account. This is an account into which an applicant makes advance payment for use later in paying copyright fees. For information on deposit accounts, request Circular 5, How to Open and Maintain a Deposit Account in the Copyright Office.
3. Credit cards (for use only in filings under the URAA). The Copyright Office will accept Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Debit cards cannot be accepted for payment. To pay by credit card, the filer must provide in a separate letter the name of the credit card used, the credit card number, the expiration date of the credit card, the total amount authorized to be charged, and a signature authorizing the Copyright Office to charge the fees to that account. To protect the security of the credit card number, the credit card number must not appear on the NIE, since the notice becomes part of the public record.

The filer of an NIE must ensure that sufficient funds accompany the NIE or are available in a deposit account. Insufficient fees could delay the effective date of notice.

*note:  Copyright Office fees are subject to change.
For current fees, please check the Copyright Office website at www.copyright.gov, write the Copyright Office, or call (202) 707-3000.

Address

Send NIEs to the following address:

GC/I&R
PO Box 70400, Southwest Station
Washington, DC 20024 USA

Do not mail to the Copyright Office.

Serving Notice Directly on a Reliance Party

The Copyright Office does not provide a form for use in serving an NIE directly on a reliance party. Those parties choosing to serve a Notice of Intent to Enforce a Restored Copyright on the reliance party should note that the URAA requires additional information. Therefore, if they use the Copyright Office's NIE format as a guide for the actual notice, it will be incomplete unless the additional information specified is added. The URAA specifications follow, with roman type added to show additional requirements for actual notice:

Notices of Intent to Enforce a Restored Copyright served on a reliance party shall be signed by the owner or the owner's agent, shall identify the restored work and the work in which the restored work is used, if any, in detail sufficient to identify them, and shall include an English translation of the title, any other alternative titles known to the owner by which the work may be identified, the use or uses to which the owner objects, and an address and telephone number at which the reliance party may contact the owner. If the notice is signed by an agent, the agency relationship must have been constituted in writing and signed by the owner before service of the notice. [104A(e)(2)(B) of the URAA]

Actual notice may be served on a reliance party at any time after copyright in the work is restored.

Restoration of Claims to Copyright in Restored Works

The URAA directs the Copyright Office to provide procedures for registration of claims to copyright; however, copyright owners of restored works need not register their works. Although the copyright law provides that the author or copyright owner of a work that is not considered a Berne Convention work must register the work or seek registration before he or she can bring a copyright infringement action in federal court,⁷ the owner of rights in a Berne work does not have to register before initiating a copyright infringement suit.