Legal Definitions - identifying material

In copyright law, identifying material refers to a representative portion or description of a creative work that is submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office for registration, instead of the complete work itself.

Normally, when registering a copyright, creators are required to deposit one or two complete copies of their work. However, there are specific situations where submitting the entire work is impractical or undesirable. This might be because the work is:

• Too large or physically difficult to deposit (e.g., a building, a massive sculpture).
• Dynamic and constantly changing (e.g., a live website or database).
• Contains sensitive trade secrets or proprietary information that the creator wishes to protect from public disclosure.

In these cases, the U.S. Copyright Office allows the submission of "identifying material" – a carefully chosen representation that clearly identifies the copyrighted work without requiring the full deposit.

Here are some examples:

• Example 1: A Large-Scale Public Art Installation

  Imagine an artist who creates an enormous, permanent art installation covering the exterior of an entire building. It's impossible to physically send the entire building or even a large section of the artwork to the Copyright Office.

  How it illustrates the term: Instead of the full work, the artist would submit identifying material such as a series of high-resolution photographs taken from various angles, detailed architectural drawings, and a written description of the materials and artistic concepts. These materials sufficiently represent the unique artwork for copyright purposes without requiring the impractical deposit of the actual installation.

• Example 2: A Proprietary Industrial Machine Design

  A manufacturing company invents a highly complex and innovative machine that incorporates several unique, confidential design elements and processes crucial to its competitive advantage. The company wants to copyright the machine's design but fears that submitting full blueprints would reveal valuable trade secrets to competitors.

  How it illustrates the term: The company could submit identifying material consisting of detailed schematics of the machine with sensitive, proprietary components carefully redacted (blacked out), along with a general description of the machine's function and a video demonstrating its external operation. This allows for copyright registration while safeguarding the company's confidential intellectual property.

• Example 3: A Vast, Dynamic Online Database

  A technology company develops a massive online database that aggregates and organizes millions of constantly updated scientific research articles. The sheer volume of data and its continuous evolution make it impossible to submit a complete, static copy of the entire database.

  How it illustrates the term: The company would submit identifying material such as a representative sample of data entries, a detailed description of the database's underlying structure (its schema), and screenshots of the user interface demonstrating how the data is organized and accessed. These elements provide enough information to identify the copyrighted work without requiring the impractical submission of the entire, ever-changing digital repository.