How to Open and Maintain a Copyright Office Deposit Account 3
No statement will be sent for any month during which no transactions occur. To ensure delivery of
electronic statements, make sure to provide current contact information. If you want to update your
contact information, send a request to
depositaccts@copyright.gov.
Failing to Maintain a Sucient Balance
When you use a deposit account, it is important to maintain a sufficient balance for the services you
request. Using a deposit account with insufficient funds can lead to delays in processing, additional
fees, and legal consequences.
If you use an underfunded deposit account to pay the filing fee for registration, the Office’s
Accounts Section will notify you in writing of the insufficient funds. If the correct filing fee is sub-
mitted within forty-five days after notice, and all other materials are in the possession of the Office,
the Office will change the effective date of registration to reflect the date on which all required mate-
rials were received and proceed to examine your application. If you do not respond within forty-five
days, the Office will close your file, and you will have to resubmit your application. For more infor-
mation about the effective date of registration, see Copyright Registration (
Circular 2).
If your deposit account has sufficient fees for one or more, but not all, services you request, the
Office will apply the fees to the services in no particular order until the funds have been exhausted.
The Office will not communicate with you to determine the order in which requested services
should proceed.
If you submit requests for services for which no deposit account funds are available, the Office
will charged you a $250 “overdraft” fee to cover the cost of extra processing. It will apply the fee for
each occurrence, not for each claim filed or service requested without funds available. For example,
if you submit five registration claims, but the account is exhausted with the first claim, the Office
will apply the service charge once, not five times.
The Office will close a deposit account the second time a deposit account holder overdraws it
within any twelve-month period.
1. This circular is intended as an overview of deposit accounts. The authoritative source for U.S.
copyright law is the Copyright Act, codied in Title 17 of the United States Code. Copyright Oce
regulations are codied in Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Copyright Oce practices and
procedures are summarized in the third edition of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Oce Practices,
cited as the Compendium. The copyright law, regulations, and the Compendium are available on the
Copyright Oce website at www.copyright.gov.