Can You Renew a Copyright? Eligibility Windows and Form RE

Copyright renewal applies only to works first published in the United States before January 1, 1978, and what you can do about it now depends entirely on the publication year. Works from 1964 through 1977 renew automatically, though you can still file an optional registration that carries legal advantages. Works from 1931 through 1963 had a mandatory renewal deadline that has already passed for every one of them, so either the copyright was renewed decades ago or the work has been in the public domain ever since. Anything created on or after January 1, 1978, never needs renewal at all.

Works Created on or After January 1, 1978 Cannot Be Renewed

If the work was created on or after January 1, 1978, there is no renewal to file and none to worry about. Copyright attached the moment the work was fixed in tangible form, and it lasts for the author’s life plus 70 years with no filing required at any point during that term.¹

For anonymous works, pseudonymous works, and works made for hire from this era, the term is 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever expires first. These also require no renewal.¹

Works Published Between 1931 and 1963: The Renewal Window Has Closed

Under the Copyright Act of 1909, copyright ran for an initial 28-year term. To keep protection alive, the owner had to file a renewal application during the 28th year. Miss that window and the work fell into the public domain permanently.²

Every one of those deadlines has now passed. A work published in 1963, the last year in this group, hit its 28th year in 1991. If it was renewed on time, it received a total term of 95 years from publication. If not, it has been in the public domain for decades and cannot be restored through a late filing.³

The oldest renewed works are now expiring on their own. As of January 1, 2026, everything published in 1930 or earlier has entered the public domain because the 95-year term has run out. The earliest publication year that could still be under copyright in 2026 is 1931.

How to Check Whether an Older Work Was Renewed

For works published between 1931 and 1963, checking the renewal record is the only way to know whether the copyright is alive or the work is free to use. The Copyright Office runs several free databases through its Copyright Public Records Portal:⁴

The Virtual Card Catalog covers registrations from 1870 through 1977.
The Catalog of Copyright Entries covers 1891 through 1978, organized by category of work.
The Copyright Public Records System covers 1898 through 1945.

Search carefully. Titles were sometimes recorded with slight variations, and a renewal may be listed under a different claimant than the person who filed the original registration. If a renewal entry exists, the work remains protected until its 95-year term expires. If no renewal appears for a work published between 1931 and 1963, it entered the public domain at the end of its original 28-year term.

Works Published Between 1964 and 1977: Renewal Is Automatic

Congress eliminated the renewal trap for this group. The Copyright Renewal Act of 1992 made renewal automatic for works originally copyrighted between January 1, 1964, and December 31, 1977, giving each a total protection term of 95 years from the year copyright was first secured.⁵ The copyright is still split into a 28-year original term and a 67-year renewal term, but the renewal term vests automatically on December 31 of the 28th year without any filing.³

You do not need to file anything to keep the copyright alive. The Copyright Office does still accept optional renewal registrations for these works, and there are real reasons to file one.

Why File an Optional Renewal Registration

If you file within the one-year window before the original 28-year term expires, the renewal certificate is prima facie evidence of the copyright’s validity during the renewed term and of the facts stated in the certificate. In a lawsuit, that shifts the burden: the other side has to prove the copyright is invalid rather than you proving it is valid.³ Filing after that one-year window closes leaves it to the court to decide how much weight the certificate carries.

A timely renewal registration also gives you more control over derivative works. If someone made a derivative work (say, a film adapted from a novel) under a license granted during the original term, a timely renewal blocks that licensee from creating new derivative works during the renewal term without a fresh agreement. Without the registration, the old license can keep covering the derivative use.³

Filing also creates a public record of who owns the renewed copyright, useful to anyone trying to license or buy rights. One caution: statutory damages and attorney’s fees in infringement suits are tied to initial copyright registration under a separate provision, not to renewal registration.⁶

Who Can File the Renewal

The law sets a specific order of who may claim the renewal copyright, and it depends on both the type of work and whether the author is still living.

For most works, the renewal right belongs first to the author, if living. If the author has died, it passes in this order:³

The author’s surviving spouse and children share the renewal right.
If no spouse or children survive, the executor of the author’s will may claim it.
If the author left no will, the right passes to the author’s next of kin.

Different rules apply for works made for hire, posthumous works (first published after the author’s death with no copyright assignment during the author’s lifetime), and composite works such as periodicals or encyclopedias. For those, the renewal right belongs to whoever held the copyright on the last day of the original 28-year term.⁷ That is typically the employer or publisher rather than any individual author.

How to File Form RE

Renewal registration uses Form RE, available from the U.S. Copyright Office website. The form calls for the exact title of the work as originally registered, the name of each author, the original registration number and date, and the renewal claimant’s name and the basis of the claim (author, surviving spouse, executor, next of kin, or proprietor).

Addendum for Works Never Registered During the Original Term

If the work was published between 1964 and 1977 but never registered during its original 28-year term, you file a Form RE/Addendum alongside Form RE. The Addendum supplies the original-term information the Copyright Office never received and requires:⁸

The title, author names, and date and nation of first publication
The citizenship and domicile of each author at the time of first publication
A statement that all published copies bore the copyright notice required by the 1909 Copyright Act through March 1, 1989
Manufacturing information for works subject to those requirements
A deposit of one copy of the work as first published, or identifying material if a copy is unavailable
A signed declaration that the application information is correct

Proof of the copyright notice, showing its content and location as it appeared on published copies, must be included even if the Copyright Office allows an alternative deposit.

Fees and Filing

The filing fee for Form RE is $125. Adding the Addendum costs another $100, for a total of $225. The Copyright Office notes that fees are subject to change, so verify current amounts at copyright.gov before mailing anything.⁹

Form RE is a paper form. Mail it to the Copyright Office with the fee and any required deposits. The effective date of your renewal registration is the date the Copyright Office receives all required elements, not the date processing finishes.

Foreign Works: URAA Restoration Is a Separate Path

Restoration is not renewal, but it comes up for anyone dealing with older foreign works that appear to be public domain in the United States. The Uruguay Round Agreements Act automatically restored U.S. copyright protection for certain foreign works that had fallen into the U.S. public domain because of failure to comply with U.S. formalities such as renewal, notice, or manufacturing rules.¹⁰

To qualify, the work must still be under copyright in its home country, must have at least one author who was a national of an eligible country (generally any WTO or Berne Convention member), and, if published, must have been first published in an eligible country rather than the United States.¹⁰

A restored copyright lasts for the remainder of the term the work would have received if it had never entered the U.S. public domain. Owners who want to enforce a restored copyright against people who relied on the work’s public domain status must file a Notice of Intent to Enforce with the Copyright Office.¹¹ There is no standard form: the notice must be in English, in letter-sized format, and include the work’s title, the copyright owner’s name and contact information, and a signed certification of ownership.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S. Code 302 – Duration of Copyright: Works Created on or After January 1, 1978
2
U.S. Copyright Office. Circular 15A Duration of Copyright
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S. Code 304 – Duration of Copyright: Subsisting Copyrights
4
U.S. Copyright Office. Search Copyright Records: Copyright Public Records Portal
5
U.S. Copyright Office. Circular 15T Extension of Copyright Terms
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S. Code 412 – Registration as Prerequisite to Certain Remedies for Infringement
7
U.S. Copyright Office. Circular 6A Renewal of Copyright
8
eCFR. 37 CFR 202.17 – Renewals
9
U.S. Copyright Office. Fees
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 U.S. Code 104A – Copyright in Restored Works
11
eCFR. 37 CFR 201.33 – Procedures for Filing Notices of Intent to Enforce a Restored Copyright Under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act