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Chapter 1300

RENEWAL OF COPYRIGHT

1301

Background. The copyright law of 1909, as amended, provided for copyright protection for an initial term of 28 years, with the possibility of a renewal term of statutory protection if a claim to renewal copyright was registered in the Copyright Office during the last year of the first term. However, a new copyright statute came into full effect on January 1, 1978: among other things, the new law makes important changes concerning the length of copyright protection: for works that are copy­righted for the first time on or after January 1, 1978, it establishes a single copyright term. Nevertheless, under the new law, works originally copyrighted before January 1, 1978, must still be renewed in order to obtain the fullest period of copyright protection allowed by the law for such works. This chapter is applicable only to those works.

1301.01

Works copyrighted before January 1, 1978. Section 304(a) of the copyright law provides that "any copyright, the first term of which is subsisting on January 1, 1978," endures for 28 years from the date it was originally secured, and that a renewal term of copyright lasting 47 years, can be secured by certain designated claimants if an application for renewal is made to the Copyright Office "within one year prior to the expiration of the original term of copy­ right." The law specifies that all such terms of copyright run to the end of the calendar year in which they would otherwise expire. See 17 U.S.C. 305. This not only affects the dura­tion of copyright: it also affects the time limits for renewal registration. See section 1302 below.

NOTE: For works that were in their renewal term of copyright on December 31, 1977, the law auto­matically extended the copyright to last for a total of 75 years (a first term of 28 years plus a renewal term of 47 years) measured from

1300-1

[1984]