Accommodation for Copyright Office Correspondence Deadlines between August 10 and September 9

When Copyright Office examiners communicate with an applicant via email, the applicant is expected to respond within forty-five days after the examiner’s message was sent. If a response is not received by the deadline, the examiner will close the claim.

Beginning August 12, 2021, and continuing until August 29, 2021, the Office’s Electronic Copyright Office (eCO) was unavailable to the public due to a technical upgrade. Persons who emailed an examiner during this period may have received an error message indicating that their message could not be delivered.

The Office is providing an accommodation for email responses that were due between August 10, 2021, and September 9, 2021. If you emailed an examiner during this thirty-day period and if your claim has been closed, you may contact the Public Information Office for special guidance on how to submit a request to reopen your claim.

Note: This accommodation only applies to claims that were closed for failure to respond to Copyright Office correspondence between August 10, 2021, and September 9, 2021. It does not apply to situations where the Office has refused registration.

For further information, please contact us online or by calling (202) 707-3000.