Legal Definitions - identifying material

Definition: Identifying material is a portion or representation of a complete work that is deposited with the U.S. Copyright Office. This is done to protect the copyright of the work.

A copyright registrant is required to deposit at least one complete copy of the work, and often two. However, if a trade secret would be revealed by the deposit or if the work's nature makes deposit difficult, a substitution is acceptable. Common forms of identifying material are drawings, photocopies, and selected pages of computer-software programs and databases.

Examples:

• A photographer may deposit a few selected photographs from their portfolio as identifying material for their copyright registration.
• An author may deposit the first few chapters of their book as identifying material.
• A software company may deposit selected pages of their software program as identifying material.

These examples illustrate how identifying material is a portion or representation of a complete work that is deposited with the U.S. Copyright Office. It is used to protect the copyright of the work and can be in the form of drawings, photocopies, or selected pages of computer-software programs and databases.