About Copyright Searches 
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Copyright searches are conducted by examining the official records of the U.S. Copyright Office, maintained as a part of the Library of Congress. We daily work with qualified search agents who can locate information contained in any document filed of record relating to a copyrighted work (such as registration certificates, renewals and assignments), but we generally do not examine copies of the actual work deposited with a registration application. Deposit copies of copyrighted works may take a variety of forms, such as audio or video tapes, consist of photographs, or be in electronic form on a floppy disk or CD-ROM, and therefore are often not easily examined or copied.
For our clients who desire one, we can order a copyright search in any one of three ways:
Title Search. A title search checks for all copyrighted works having a particular title. This is the usual method of finding a copyrighted work where the author or date of the work are unknown, or for replacing a lost registration certificate. Because of the differences between copyrights and trademarks, there may be numerous copyrighted works using the same title. Copyright protection generally attaches only to the substantive or underlying work of authorship as it is expressed in a tangible form of expression, and not to the bare title. That is, one does not copyright a bare title as one might trademark a phrase or slogan. Nonetheless, it is often necessary to determine what copyrighted works use a particular title.
History Search. A history search examines all the records relating to a particular copyrighted work. This type of search is useful for verifying who the current copyright holder is of an older work, for determine royalty and ownership holders in the preparation of derivative works, or for determining whether the rights of the claimants have terminated and/or the work has fallen into the public domain. If a new work of authorship proposes to include all or a portion of a prior work of authorship, it is important to determine whose permission is required, or whom to pay royalties, if any.
Author/Claimant Search. An author/claimant search looks for all copyrighted works listing a specific person or company as the author or claimant. (A claimant is usually either the author or the employer of the author in a work made for hire. The claimants are the persons who initially "own" a copyright.) This type of search is useful for determining the intellectual property assets of an individual going through a bankruptcy or divorce, or an organization going through a bankruptcy, dissolution, or merger/acquisition. Because the quantity of items found in an author/claimant search will depend on how prolific the person has been, the volume of recorded documents will vary widely and your search cost can also vary widely.
Please keep in mind that a copyright search report is not the same as an opinion of uniqueness or registerability. A search is merely intended to identify all documents of record meeting the criteria specified. The legal effect of these documents must be separately determined by someone knowledgeable and experienced in analyzing search results.
Need a copyright search? Click here.
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