The Copyright Act allows authors or their heirs, under certain circumstance, to terminate an agreement that transferred or licensed the author’s rights to a third party. To terminate a grant, the author or the author’s heirs must serve a “notice of termination” on the grantee or successor in interest and must record a copy of that notice with the U.S. Copyright Office. For information concerning this topic, see Chapter 2300, Section 2310.

The notice of termination must specify the date that the termination goes into effect. The effective date must fall within a five-year “termination period,” which is based on factors set forth in Sections 203, 304(c), or 304(d) of the Copyright Act.

The notice must be served no less than two years and no more than ten years before the effective date and must be recorded with the Office before the effective date.

The Office has developed a series of tables that may be useful in identifying the termination period, selecting an effective date of termination, and for calculating deadlines for service and recording the notice:

Grants Executed by the Author on or After January 1, 1978 (Section 203):

• Grant Did Not Convey Right of Publication
• Grant Conveyed Right of Publication (Calculation Based on Date of Publication)
• Grant Conveyed Right of Publication (Calculation Based on Date of Execution)

Grants Executed by the Author or the Author’s Heirs before January 1, 1978 (Section 304(c)-(d)):

• Involving Works Originally Registered or Published with Notice between 1923 and 1977
• Involving Works Originally Registered or Published with Notice between January 1, 1923, and October 26, 1939