How Do I Find the Legal Document When a Copyright Is Assigned to Another Owner?

Dialog Support > "How Do I...?" Series > Trademarks & Copyrights

Find the Legal Document When a Copyright Is Assigned to Another Owner?

TOPIC: Legal documents deal with the clarification or transfer of ownership rights from one party (Party of the First) to another (Party of the Second). Legal document records of a copyright include summary information about assignments and security interests, notices of termination of a registration, and declarations concerning authorship recorded with the Copyright Office. Legal documents can be very long.

U.S. Copyrights (File 120) provides access to registration details for all active copyright and mask-work registrations or renewals granted by the U.S. Copyright Office from January 1, 1978 to the present. The database is a fast screening tool for checking the ownership and registration status of a particular work, as well as a particular individual's or entity's portfolio of registered works.

In this example you want to find the legal document for any change of ownership to some of Barry Manilow's songs. You want to know what songs were assigned and to whom. You can limit to legal documents using /D.

COMMAND SUMMARY

BEGIN 120
VISUAL EXPAND OW=MANILOW
Check all Manilow entries and click Select
SELECT S1/D
PICKLIST S2
TYPE S2/9/1

HOW TO...

1. BEGIN in the copyright database (File 120). 2. VISUAL EXPAND on the owner's name (OW=) to see all variations for a particular owner. Note: You can use CO= for owner's name for compatibility if you are searching more than one database. 3. Click the entries that pertain to Manilow to create Set 1 (S1).
4. Limit S1 to legal document records (/D).
5. Enter Picklist S2 to see all legal document records in Set 2 (S2). The copyright titles and the status displays in FREE format. Note: Some records have been omitted from this display.
6. TYPE records using Format 9 if you want to see all the song titles included as in this record. Use Format 2 to see the entire legal document record MINUS the list of titles in the Works section.

RELATED HOW DO I...? SOLUTIONS

NEED HELP?

Contact the Dialog Knowledge Center
Within North America 1 800 3 DIALOG (334 2564)
Outside North America 0 800 33 DIALOG (33 34 2564)
Web Form www.dialog.com/contacts/webform

Stock #: 53221; Last modified: 14 Sep 2011

You are viewing the

Click below to view the


Dialog Home \| About Dialog \| Site Search


Copyright Notices \| Terms of Use \| Privacy Statement