TGIF for Doing the Impossible

In honor of GSK accomplishing what many patent practitioners thought was impossible earlier this week, I couldn't resist pointing to the latest announcement from the U.S. Copyright Office on making the impossible, possible:

Under the 1909 copyright law, works copyrighted in the United States before January 1, 1978, were subject to a renewal system in which the term of copyright was divided into two consecutive 28-year terms. To secure the renewal protection, the claimant had to file a renewal registration within strict time limits. However, since January 1, 2006, all applications for renewal have necessarily related to works which, due to automatic renewal, are already in their renewal terms, making impossible any renewal in the 28th year. . . .

Consequently, the Office issued a final rule revising CFR 202.17 (read further information) so that copyright practioners too can now "do the impossible," with the latest USCO forms:

Any applications for registration of claims to the renewal term must be filed using the newly revised forms. The previously used forms are obsolete, and the new forms must be used to file renewal claims. The new forms are Form RE for renewal, Form RE/CON for additional information, and Form RE/Addendum for works not registered during the original term.

Thank Goodness It's Friday (and "Anything's possible for a Possible"),

--Bill Heinze