37 CFR 203.3
Organization.
Last updated in November 2005.
CFR Part Index
Previous Section (§203.2) | Next Section (§203.4)
§203.3 Organization.
(a)
In general. The Office of the Register exercises overall direction of the work of the Copyright Office, including work in conjunction with copyright legislation, litigation and promulgation of copyright regulations. The Office of the Register of Copyrights includes the legal, administrative, and automation staff.(b)
The Associate Register of Copyright for Operations has oversight of the operating divisions of the Copyright Office. The operating divisions are:(1)
The Receiving and Processing Division, which receives incoming materials, dispatches outgoing materials and establishes control over fiscal accounts.(2)
The Examining Division, which examines all applications and material presented to the Copyright Office for registration of original and renewal copyright claims, and which determines whether the material deposited constitutes coyrightable subject matter and whether the other legal and formal requirements of Title 17 have been met.(3)
The Cataloging Division, which prepares the bibliographic description of all copyrighted works registered in the Copyright Office, including the recording of legal facts of copyright pertaining to each work, in an on-line database in which copyright records can be searched; and which also examines and catalogs in an on-line database documents submitted for recordation.(4)
The Information and Reference Division, which provides a national copyright information service through the Public Information Office, educates the public on the copyright law, issues and distributes information materials, responds to reference requests regarding copyright matters, prepares search reports based upon copyright records, certifies copies of legal documents concerned with copyright, and maintains liaison with the United States Customs Service, the Department of the Treasury, and the United States Postal Service on certain matters. The Information and Reference Division also develops, services, stores, and preserves the official records and catalogs of the Copyright Office, including applications for registration, historical records, and materials deposited for copyright registration that are not selected by the Library of Congress for addition to its collections.(5)
The Licensing Division, which implements the sections of the Copyright Act dealing with secondary transmissions of radio and television programs, compulsory licenses for making and distributing phonorecords of nondramatic musical, pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works in connection with noncommercial broadcasting. The Licensing Division is in charge of collecting the statutory royalties and distributing these royalties based on either a voluntary agreement among the interested parties or a determination of the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels.