Unlike patents and trademarks, the Copyright Office does not perform a search to determine whether a work is registerable. In this regard, searches are not necessary under the copyright code. In fact, such searches are not possible since the Copyright Office does not index by subject matter. Searching of the Copyright Office records however, is available to the public to determine for example the status of a work or to determine ownership of a work. In this regard, the Copyright Office has set up several databases: COHM which is a database of works registered since 1978; COHD, which is a database relating to copyright ownership matters, and COHS, a database of serials, such as periodicals, magazines, journals, newspapers, etc.. To learn more about searching the records in the Copyright Office we have provided you with some other important links:

LOCIS Usage Guide Information

How to Investigate the Status of a Work

The Copyright Office Card Catalog

On Line Files of the Copyright Office

If you would like to engage our services to help you with searching the records of the United States Copyright Office, send us a brief description of the information you require and we will promptly reply by providing you with a fixed price quote for conducting the search. Similarly, if you would like to engage our firm for preparing and filing a copyright registration on your behalf, we will provide you with a fixed price quote. All communications with our office are held in the strictest confidence. A schedule of our fees relating to copyright matters, including a sample engagement letter is available for your review.