Copyright Office Issues Final Rule Establishing Adjusted Fees for Its Various Services

The Copyright Office (“Office”) of the Library of Congress has published a final rule establishing adjusted fees for its services. The adjusted fees will recover a significant part of the costs to the Office of registering claims and provide full cost recovery for many other services provided by the Office which benefit only or primarily the user of that service.

According to the Office, the new fees are based on reliable information regarding the costs of providing services, and reflect cost savings associated with the implementation of electronic processing in the Copyright Office in 2007. Under the new fee structure, the fee for online registration of a basic claim will remain $35. The registration fee for Form CO will be raised from $45 to $50 and the registration fee for paper filings of Forms PA, SR, TX, VA, SE and faulty CO will be raised from $45 to $65. In a few instances, fees have been adjusted downward from the fees published in the notice of proposed rulemaking in light of comments received from the public.

The final rule took effect on August 1, 2009.

The Office explained that this final rule adjusts its fees in accordance with the applicable provisions of title 17, United States Code, and the Technical Amendments Act, Pub. L. No. 105–80, 111 Stat. 1529 (1997), codified as 17 U.S.C. 708(b). The expenses of the Copyright Office have always been substantially funded through the charging of fees for the services provided. Nevertheless, fees have never provided full cost recovery for all expenditures of the Copyright Office.

The Office added that for the last fifty years, cost recovery through the charging of fees has ranged between 50% to 80% of the expenses of the Office. The current fee adjustment is forecasted to cover approximately 60% of the Office’s expenses.

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