[2] The Copyright Office is located in the James Madison Memorial Building of the Library of Congress, at 101 Independence Avenue SE, in Washington, DC.

On June 9, 1790, the U.S. District Court of Pennsylvania registered the first work, the Philadelphia Spelling Book by John Barry.

[5] The 1909 Copyright Act was signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt on March 4, 1909, which expanded protection to additional types of works.

On October 19, 1976, President Gerald R. Ford signed into law the Copyright Act of 1976, which became effective on January 1, 1978.

Under the 1976 Act, federal copyright requires only a fixation of an original work of authorship in a tangible medium of expression.

The archives maintained by the Copyright Office are an important record of America's cultural and historical heritage.

A new fee schedule for Copyright Office services was made effective from March 20, 2020 onwards.

Copyright Office NewsNet, a free electronic mailing list that issues periodic email alerts to subscribers regarding hearings, deadlines for comments, new and proposed regulations, new publications, and other copyright-related subjects of interest.

[12] On August 29, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Copyright Office could no longer demand copies of published works under section 407 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which previously allowed the Office to demand 2 copies of any work published in the United States.

Created within the Copyright Office by Congress in 1988, the International Copyright Institute provides training for high-level officials from developing and newly industrialized countries and encourages development of effective intellectual property laws and enforcement overseas.