to
unfair competition. They may also be entitled to registration under the
provisions of the trademark laws. Questions about the trademark laws
should be addressed to the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks,
Washington, D.C. 20231. Possible protection of names and titles under
common law principles of unfair competition is a question of state law.

NO LEGAL ADVICE. The Copyright Office cannot express any opinion as to
the legal significance or effect of the facts included in a search
report.

SOME WORDS OF CAUTION

Searches Not Always Conclusive

Searches of the Copyright Office catalogs and records are useful in
helping to determine the copyright status of a work, but they cannot be
regarded as conclusive in all cases. The complete absence of any
information about a work in the Office records does not mean that the
work is unprotected. The following are examples of cases in which
information about a particular work may be incomplete or lacking entirely
in the Copyright Office:

+ Before 1978, unpublished works were entitled to protection under
common law without the need of registration.

+ Works published with notice prior to 1978 may be registered at any
time within the first 28-year term.

+ Works copyrighted between January 1, 1964, and December 31, 1977, are
affected by the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992, which automatically
extends the copyright term and makes renewal registrations optional.

+ For works under copyright protection on or after January 1, 1978,
registration may be made at any time during the term of protection.
Although registration is not required as a condition of copyright
protection, there are certain definite advantages to registration. For
further information, request Circular 1, "Copyright Basics."

+ Since searches are ordinarily limited to registrations that have
already been cataloged, a search report may not cover recent
registrations for which catalog records are not yet available.

+ The information in the search request may not have been complete or
specific enough to identify the work.

+ The work may have been registered under a different title or as part of
a larger work.

Protection in Foreign Countries

Even if you conclude that a work is in the public domain in the United
States, this does not necessarily mean that you are free to use it in
other countries. Every nation has its own laws governing the length and
scope of copyright pr