U.S. Copyright Office Issues a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Regarding Agreement-Based Counterclaims Before the Copyright Claims Board

The Copyright Office issued a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding Copyright Claims Board procedures governing “agreement-based” counterclaims. These counterclaims can be brought only in response to an infringement claim and must be based on an agreement (for example, a contract) covering the same circumstances as the infringement claim. Further, these counterclaims can only be brought if the agreement at issue could affect the relief awarded to the claimant for their infringement claim.

The proposed rule contains requirements for asserting or responding to agreement-based counterclaims as well as standard interrogatories and standard requests for the production of documents.

The proposed rule and instructions for submitting comments are available here. Written comments must be received no later than June 20, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. eastern time.