Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: Holder of Copyright

You say these are printed materials. If you have copies of the printed works, they will most likely have the name of the publisher and an address on the flyleaf (where the copyright notice appears). You can contact the author through the publisher.

Another way to find the author would be to get a copy of the copyright registration, which contains the address. If you have the name and registration number, you can obtain a copy of a registration certificate from the Copyright Office for a fee of about $25. See the Copyright Office web site for more information on how to do this. Before doing this, you should search the "documents" section to see if the copyright has been assigned, so that you have the latest owner's name.

Re: Holder of Copyright

As to locating the copyright owner, if you cannot locate him through search engines, you can do a "skip trace" to find out where he is now living.

Once you locate him, you will need an attorney to prepare a licensing agreement. I have prepared many similar agreements. You can see my bio at http://www.schinner.com/html/the_schinner_law_group_-_d__al.html