• An ad interim copyright was granted as an exception to the 1909 Copyright Act’s manufacturing clause, which limited copyright protection for English-language books and periodicals to those printed in the U.S. If the copyright owner published the work in the U.S. during the period of ad interim protection and complied with the Act’s manufacturing requirements, full copyright protection related back to the date of first publication. Otherwise, the work went into the public domain at the end of five years.
ad interim copyright
Hist. A limited five-year U.S. copyright granted to the author of a foreign edition of an English-language book or periodical if, within six months after its publication abroad, the author deposited one complete copy of that edition in the U.S. Copyright Office and requested ad interim copyright protection.