Practice Pointers - Statutory Termination Of Copyright Grants

Imagine you represent an exclusive licensee of a copyrighted work, such as a book publisher. The client's license provides, as per the usual boilerplate, that the licensee can exploit the licensed work "for the full term of copyright in the work, including all renewals and extensions thereof." The copyright in the work, initially issued in 1966, will not expire until 2061. Does this mean your client's rights are safely locked in until that date? No. Under the Copyright Act, there are two different statutory termination provisions, set forth in sections 203 and 304 of the 1976 Copyright Act, under which your client could lose its right to exploit the work prior to the end of the copyright term.