IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: New group registration option for many forms of two-dimensional artwork, (Dec 19, 2025)
By Matthew Hersh, J.D.
But the Copyright Office refuses to expand the rule to include 3D works or architectural drawings.
The Copyright Office has established a new group registration option for certain artwork that can be registered with one application and one filing fee, the Office has announced. But the new registration option, which was announced by press release and is further detailed in a final rule published in the Federal Register, would apply only to two-dimensional artwork—such as paintings, sketches, logos—and not, to the disappointment of some commentators, to architectural plans or works of art containing three dimensions.
The new rule, which was first issued in proposed form in February of last year, comes after the Office’s consideration 14 different comments by stakeholders such as the Copyright Alliance, the Coalition of Visual Artists, the Association of Medical Illustrators, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association. The proposal was initiated, the Office explains in its Register notice, to address concerns about visual artworks’ “distinct vulnerability to downstream infringement” as well as the significant number of works some artists produce each year. Moreover, the Office notes, despite these infringement concerns, most artists do not engage with the Office's registration system “due to the cost of registering individual works relative to their potential revenue, the lack of time and resources necessary to register multiple individual works, and unfamiliarity or difficulty with the registration process.”
The new rule will be a disappointment to stakeholders who had urged the Office to expand the group registration proposal to include three-dimensional works, architectural works or technical drawings, and applied art. The Office gave two reasons for rejecting this proposal. First, the Office emphasized, inclusion of these works in the group registration option “would increase the time and cost of examination, as consideration of such works demands the application of legal standards that are not generally at issue for two-dimensional works.” Second, the Office noted, while visual artists are often “prolific creators who produce a significant number of works each year,” that premise “does not appear to hold with respect to threedimensional artworks.” Indeed, the Office noted, the rate of production of two- and three-dimensional works appeared to meaningfully differ and, at this time, “stakeholders have not demonstrated a distinct need to include three-dimensional and architectural works in the new group registration option.”
Other notable aspects of the new group registration rule include, among others, the following:
The rule allows the registration of up to 20 works at a time—double the amount the Office had originally proposed.
The rule allows the registration of works published within the same calendar year to be included within one group—an expansion from the original proposal that would have limited the time frame to one month.
The rule covers only works that have been created by a single author or as a work for hire—a disappointment to some commentators who proposed that joint authors also be able to avail themselves of the rule.
The new rule will not take effect until February 17, 2026, the Office notes, in order to “coincide with the expected completion of related system development and educational resources.” As IP Law Dailynoted when the proposed rule was published, the proposed regulation were limited at the time by the capacity limitations of the Office’s outdated “legacy” copyright registration portal.
News: Copyright TechnologyInternet GCNNews