A copyright may be assigned, granted, or mortgaged by an instrument in
writing signed by the proprietor of the copyright. No special blank
form for assignment is issued by the Copyright Office.
=Recording assignments:=
Every assignment of copyright should be recorded in the Copyright
Office within three calendar months after its execution in the United
States, or within six calendar months after its execution without
the limits of the United States, "in default of which it shall be
void as against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee for a valuable
consideration, without notice, whose assignment has been duly recorded."
The original instrument of assignment should be sent to the Copyright
Office to be placed on record. A valuable document of this kind should
be forwarded by registered post.
After having been recorded, a certificate of record under seal of the
Copyright Office is attached, and it is then returned by post. If
the sender desires to have it returned by registered post, ten cents
postage for the post-office registry fee should be sent in addition to
the recording fees as stated below.
=Notice in assignee's name:=
When an assignment of the copyright in a specified book or other work
has been recorded, the assignee may substitute his name for that of
the assignor in the copyright notice. In order that this transfer of
proprietorship may properly appear upon the index of the Copyright
Office, a fee of ten cents (prescribed by law) for each title of a book
or other article transferred is required for indexing, and this fee
should be remitted in addition to the fee prescribed for recording the
instrument as explained below.
=Foreign assignments:=
Every assignment of copyright executed in a foreign country must be
acknowledged by the assignor before a consular officer or secretary of
legation of the United States, authorized by law to administer oaths
or perform notarial acts. The certificate of such acknowledgment under
the hand and official seal of such consular officer or secretary of
legation is prima facie evidence of the execution of the instrument.