Copyright registration provides legal rights and benefits to the creators such as safeguarding the original works from unauthorized use. The U.S. Copyright Office established group registration to allow an applicant to register multiple works in certain limited categories, such as photographs, with one application and one filing fee. While there are many pros such as providing a more convenient and cost effect way to register multiple works of authorship, there are cons that should be considered.

Below are the requirements to register multiple photographs together:

• All of the works in the group must be photographs. Other works may not be combined with photographs for group registration.

• All of the works in the group must either be all published or all unpublished.

• The group must include no more than 750 photographs, and the application must specify the total number of photographs in the group.

• All of the photographs must be created by the same author.

• The copyright claimant(s) for all the photographs must be the same person or organization.

• The group of photographs as a whole must have a title.

If the group registration is for published photographs, there is an additional requirement that all the photographs must be published within the same calendar year, and the application must specify the earliest and the latest date that the photographs were published.

Note that it is possible to use group registration to register “works made for hire” photographs as long as all the photos were created for the same employer, the employer is named as the author of each photo, and the photos are identified in the application as “works made for hire.”

To register a claim to copyright in two or more photographs, you must submit the following: (1) a completed application form; (2) a nonrefundable filing fee; (3) a digital copy of each photograph; and (4) a list providing the title and file name assigned to each photograph.

We understand the importance of protection your creative works, and we are available to discuss your protection strategy, including groups of photographs. Please contact us for further information.