Karyn A. Temple Appointed Acting Register of Copyrights
Issue No. 638 - October 25, 2016


Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has appointed Karyn A. Temple as Acting Register of Copyrights effective October 21. Maria A. Pallante, who served as Register since 2011, submitted her resignation from the Library of Congress effective October 29.


“Maria’s service as Register has laid the groundwork for important modernization efforts in the Copyright Office, which I intend to pursue working in close collaboration with Congress and stakeholders. Improved information technology for the office will be a top priority. I am committed to making sure the copyright system of the United States is effective, efficient, and secure,” said Hayden.


Prior to Pallante’s term as Register, she served as Deputy General Counsel (2007-2008) and Associate Register and Director of Policy and International Affairs (2008-2011) for the office. From 1999-2007 she was Intellectual Property Counsel and Director of Licensing for the worldwide Guggenheim Museums. She also worked for two authors’ organizations in New York, serving as Assistant Director of the Authors Guild Inc. and as Executive Director of the National Writers Union. She practiced at the Washington, D.C., law firm and literary agency Lichtman, Trister, Singer and Ross and completed a clerkship in administrative law for the appellate division of the U.S. Department of Labor.


“I am pleased to announce that Karyn A. Temple will serve as Acting Register while a national search is conducted for a new permanent Register,” Hayden said. “Karyn is a skilled intellectual property lawyer and manager, and I am confident she will provide excellent leadership for the Copyright Office in the interim.”


Temple has served since 2013 as Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Policy and International Affairs for the United States Copyright Office. In that role, she has overseen the office’s domestic and international policy analyses, legislative support, and trade negotiations. She has directed the Office of Policy and International Affairs, which represents the Copyright Office at meetings of government officials concerned with the international aspects of intellectual property protection, and provides support to Congress and its committees on statutory amendments and construction.


Prior to joining the Copyright Office, Temple served as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, where she assisted with the formulation of Department of Justice policy on legal issues and helped manage the Department of Justice’s Task Force on Intellectual Property. She also spent several years in the private sector as Vice President, Litigation and Legal Affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America and at the law firm Williams & Connolly, LLP. She began her legal career as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division through its Honors Program and also served as a law clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Temple earned her law degree from Columbia Law School, where she was a senior editor of the Columbia Law Review and Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She earned her BA from the University of Michigan.