Of the two filings, the musical work is the more forgiving. Fewer rights-holders, a lower fee, and a deposit copy you can produce yourself. It still has one definitional trap worth understanding before you file.

What you are actually registering

Section 2(p): a “musical work” means a work consisting of music and includes any graphical notation of it, but does not include any words intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music.

Read literally, the lyrics are not part of the musical work at all, they are a literary work in their own right.

In practice that is not how the filing behaves. The Office accepts a musical work filing whose deposit copy carries the lyrics written under the staves, and on the certificates we have had back the registered work is described in terms of both halves, as consisting of lyrics and musical composition.

But the definition still explains two things that otherwise look arbitrary:

  • why the deposit copy matters so much, the notation is the work;
  • why a lyric sheet on its own is a weaker deposit than notation with the lyrics set under it.

The practical answer: file a lead sheet, melody in staff notation, with the lyrics under the line. That is one document that evidences both halves of what people mean by “the song”, and it is what comes back stamped.

Column 7: the composer, and the lyricist too

Section 2(d)(ii) says the author of a musical work is the composer, and section 2(p) says the work excludes the words. Read strictly, those two together seem to shut the lyricist out of the form entirely.

Do not file it that way. On our own granted certificates, where a song had a composer and a separate lyricist, both are named as authors and both appear in the authors table on the certificate that came back. The registered work is described as consisting of lyrics and musical composition. That is what the Office issued, not what we argued for.

So the practical rule is the simple one: everyone who wrote the song goes in Column 7, whether they wrote notes or words, and everyone in Column 7 signs the assignment. Two composers, both. Composer plus lyricist, both. One person who did both, once.

The risk of being clever here is not a rejection, it is a gap in your chain of title that shows up years later when there is money involved and a writer who was left off the register has a view about it.

The remarks column is where you say who did which in plain words, and remember that block is reproduced on the certificate.

The columns you can ignore

Form XIV serves every class of work, so a music filing leaves a lot of it blank. Several columns near the end deal only with artistic works, where the work is used on goods, whether it is registered under the Designs Act, and the trade mark search certificate that goes with that. For a song they are all “N/A”.

Knowing that in advance saves a surprising amount of second-guessing, because those columns look important and are simply not addressed to you.

Two copies, and the service requirement

The physical packet wants two copies of the work: for a musical work, the notation, printed. And the form carries a declaration that you have posted copies of the application to the other parties named in it, by registered post.

Both are covered in the physical packet post, and they apply to this filing exactly as they do to the recording.

Next: why the musical work usually clears first. Up: Musical Work copyright.