IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: Copyright Office special report examines geographic distribution of domestic copyright claims, (Sep 12, 2024)

By Justin Marcus Smith, J.D.

California and New York accounted for a whopping 37 percent of the eight types of copyright registrations examined, but the data revealed interesting distinctions, like the more commercial nature of Los Angeles registrations relative to New York, and super-hero activity.

The U.S. Copyright Office has announced the release of a special report entitled The Geography of Copyright Registrations. Copyright Office Chief Economist Brent Lutes said the report will aid in understanding patterns of registration activity to “help us better identify the socioeconomic factors that influence creative and innovative activity[.]” In addition to direct insights, for example, about the role of copyright in “creative ecosystems,” the Copyright Office expects the analysis to “provide[] a foundation for future research on the role and function of copyright policy.”

Methods. The report drew on geographic data about copyright registration applications from 2009 to 2022. Researchers first identified the types of works most commonly registered and then analyzed whether they were more commonly registered by individuals or organizations. From there, the study provided an overview of total registrations and registrations per capita at the state level and within more precise locales. Small numbers or even individual registrants were discernible as contributors to notable instances of relatively high per capita registration count. Last, the study looked at the geographic distribution for registrations by type of work.

The report relied on “Copyright Retrieval Codes” from the MARC 21 registration records. Certain types of works are infrequently registered. For example, the study found only 500 copyrights for multimedia kits. As such, the report focused on only the eight most common registration types: (1) art works; (2) dramatic works; (3) literary works; (4) machine-readable works; (5) motion pictures; (6) musical works; (7) serials; and, (8) sound recordings.

The report made use of different geographic classifications, starting with region and state. Hubs were discernible which called for looking more deeply into counties and cities. The report identified cities as entire metropolitan areas by metropolitan/micropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Most Americans live in MSAs. They exclude rural areas and towns of fewer than 10,000 residents that are not part of larger urban areas. County granularity, in contrast, provided full nationwide coverage, but it did not correspond as well to economic and social activity boundaries as did the MSAs. This called for use of both MSA and county units of analysis.

Literary works, the largest category, accounted for nearly 2 million out of a total of more than 5.5 million registrations during the 14-year period. Machine-readable works were easily the smallest category at under 100 thousand registrations. The other categories were all clustered in a comparable range between roughly 300 thousand and a million registrations.

Key findings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 40 percent of all domestic -origin copyright registrations originate in just five cities: New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

More surprisingly, registrations suggest that certain geographic areas specialize in different types of creative works. Registrants in the South go heavy on musical works, whereas registrants in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic focus more on literary works, and California registrants cleave to film and dramatic works.

Within cities and other locales, after controlling for population, the study revealed registration hot spots keyed to where specific companies, universities, and other specialized entities are located.

Other findings. Among states, California and New York stood head and shoulders above any of the other states for registrations. Together, they accounted for about 37 percent of all registrations despite accounting for less than 15 percent of the population. Registrations of the top ten states accounted for two-thirds of total registrations.

Within California and New York, Los Angeles registrations for art work, musical works, and sound recordings tended to be more commercial, whereas New York City registrations of the same types of works tended to be more individual.

More generally, the report found individual claimants were more likely than organizational claimants to register literary works, musical works, sound recordings, and dramatic works. Conversely, organizational claimants were more likely to register the more commercially-focused categories of art works connected to advertising, computer software, motion pictures, and serials.

The report revealed patterns of agglomeration and specialization at the regional and state levels. This appeared to confirm the supposition that there are logistical benefits from the colocation of similar firms in a way that may matter even more for firms and workers in creative industries.

The most frequent origin of sound recording registrations on a per capita basis was the Portales, New Mexico MSA, apparently related to Garmex Music. The Ogden-Clearfield, Utah MSA was the most frequent origin of software registrations on a per capita basis. Registrations by individuals were more widely dispersed.

The report concluded with a two-page spread of statistics, bar graphs, and map heat charts for each of the eight types of registrations examined. For example, the report showed that literary works accounted for 43% of all registrations. The top literary work registrants in New York were Springer Science and Business Media, Oxford University Press, USA, and Marvel Characters, Inc. California’s top literary work registrants included DC Comics, University of California, and Elsevier, Inc. Pennsylvania’s top literary work registrants included Elsevier, Inc., ASTM International, and Wolters Kluwer Health.

The Copyright Office press release said readers should expect a forthcoming report on the demographics of copyright registrations.

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