Karyn A. Temple Is Named Register of Copyrights
Issue No. 758 - March 27, 2019
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced that she has appointed Karyn A. Temple as Register of Copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office, effective today, March 27, 2019. Temple has been Acting Register of Copyrights since October 21, 2016.
“I am pleased to announce that Karyn Temple will serve as the 13th United States Register of Copyrights,” Hayden said. “Karyn has done a superb job as Acting Register for the last two and half years, leveraging her skills as both a copyright lawyer and accomplished manager to provide excellent leadership for the Copyright Office.”
“It is an extremely exciting time for copyright law and the U.S. Copyright Office, with historic revisions to the music licensing system to address the digital age, updates to our regulatory practices, and modernization of the Office's technology and business processes all happening now,” said Temple. “I am honored to have the opportunity to continue working with the entire copyright community, Members of Congress, and the general public as we move forward to meet the challenges of the modern age.”
Prior to her appointment as Acting Register, Temple had served since 2013 as Associate Register of Copyrights and director of policy and international affairs for the U.S. Copyright Office. In that role, she oversaw the office’s domestic and international policy analyses, legislative support, and international negotiations.
Before joining the Copyright Office in 2011, Temple served as senior counsel to the deputy attorney general of the United States, where she helped formulate U.S. 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 private practice as vice president, litigation and legal affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America and at the law firm Williams & Connolly, LLP.
Temple 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 to the Hon. Nathaniel R. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She received her JD from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a senior editor of the Columbia Law Review. Temple received her BA from the University of Michigan.