Upon request, the Copyright Office staff will search its records at the statutory rate of $65 [1] for each hour or fraction of an hour consumed.  Based on the information you furnish, we will provide an estimate of the total search fee.  If you decide to have the Office staff conduct the search, you should send the estimated amount with your request.  The Office will then proceed with the search and send you a typewritten report or, if you prefer, an oral report by telephone.  If you request an oral report, please provide a telephone number where you can be reached from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., eastern time.

Search reports can be certified on request for an extra fee of $65 per hour. [1] Certified searches are most frequently requested to meet the evidentiary requirements of litigation.

Your request and any other correspondence should be addressed to : 

Library of Congress
Copyright Office
Reference and Bibliography Section, LM-451
101 Independence Avenue, S.E. 
Washington, D.C. 20559-6000

Tel:  (202) 707-6850
Fax:  (202) 252-3485
TTY:(202) 707-6737

What the Fee Does Not Cover

The search fee does not include the cost of additional certificates, photocopies of deposits, or copies of other Office records.  For information concerning these services, request Circular 6, “Obtaining Access to and Copies of Copyright Office Records and Deposits.”

Information Needed

The more detailed information you can furnish with your request, the less expensive the search will be.  Please provide as much of the following information as possible: 

+ The title of the work, with any possible variants + The names of the authors, including possible pseudonyms + The name of the probable copyright owner, which may be the publisher or
  producer
+ The approximate year when the work was published or registered + The type of work involved (book, play, musical composition, sound
  recording, photograph, etc.)
+ For a work originally published as a part of a periodical or
  collection, the title of that publication and any other information,
  such as the volume or issue number, to help identify it
+ The registration number or any other copyright data

Motion pictures are often based on other works such as books or serialized contributions to periodicals or other composite works. If you desire a search for an underlying work or for music from a motion picture, you must specifically request such a search.  You must also identify the underlying works and music and furnish the specific titles, authors, and approximate dates of these works.

Searches Involving Assignments and Other Documents Affecting Copyright Ownership

For the standard hourly search fee, the Copyright Office staff will search its indexes covering the records of assignments and other recorded documents concerning ownership of copyrights.  The reports of searches in these cases will state the facts shown in the Office’s indexes of the recorded documents but will offer no interpretation of the content of the documents or their legal effect.