Year date in the copyright notice. (cont'd)
previously published material requires only the year date of first publication of the compilation or derivative work. 17 U.S.C. 401(b)(2). The year date may be omitted where a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, with accompanying text, if any, is reproduced in or on greeting cards, postcards, stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or any useful articles. 17 U.S.C. 101 and 401(b)(2). NOTE: A label is not considered a useful article, from which the year date may be omitted. Those textiles and fabrics which are useful articles do not require a year date; however, where a copyright notice applicable to a textile or a fabric which is a useful article is contained on a label affixed to the textile or fabric, and the year date is omitted from the notice, such notice shall be acceptable insofar as it applies to the textile or fabric. See section 1013.11(4)(iii) below.
Form of year date. A year date is acceptable in any of the following forms: 1) Arabic numerals, e.g., 1981; 2) abbreviations of Arabic numerals,e.g., '81; 3) Roman numerals e.g., MCMLXXXI; 4) spelled out in words instead of numerals, e.g., Nineteen Hundred Eighty-one.
Omitted where required. Where copies or phonorecords publicly distributed by authority of the copyright owner contain no date that could reasonably be regarded as a part of the notice, the work is considered to have been published without any notice. 17 U.S.C. 405; see also section 1008 of this chapter.
Earlier than year of publication (antedated). Where the year date in the notice on copies or phonorecords is earlier than the year in which publication first occurred (see section 1010 of this chapter), it is considered to be an error in date governed by 17 U.S.C. 406(b). The application will be annotated to indicate the date in the notice. A warning letter may be sent to the applicant pointing out the error in date and the consequences it may
