William Lincoln Brown (1862–1940) was the second Register of Copyrights (1934–36) in the United States Copyright Office.

Born in Brewster, Massachusetts, in 1862, William Lincoln Brown became chief of the Bookkeeping Division of the Copyright Office in 1907, rising to chief clerk shortly afterward.

He left the Office in 1917 to become officer of the American Library Association's War Service Committee but returned three years later.

Brown performed as acting Register of Copyrights upon Thorvald Solberg's retirement in 1930 until being officially named to the position.

[1] A retirement notice in the 1937 annual report of the Register of Copyrights described Brown as "a quiet and competent administrator, a man of high personal ideals, and a strong sense of duty and justice.