The Copyright Claims Board (CCB) is a small-claims tribunal that operates inside the U.S. Copyright Office. Congress created it in December 2020 through the CASE Act, and it has been hearing copyright infringement cases since June 2022. A winning claimant can recover up to $30,000 per proceeding, including up to $15,000 per work in statutory damages, without ever opening a case in federal district court.
Three facts shape everything that follows. A respondent can opt out for free, which ends the proceeding before it truly starts. The Board awards money only, it cannot order infringing content removed. And if the losing respondent will not pay, you end up in federal district court to enforce anyway. Hold onto those three facts and the rest of the process makes sense.
What the Copyright Claims Board Is and Why Congress Built It
Congress created the Board through the CASE Act, the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act, passed in late December 2020 as part of the year-end federal spending package. The law added a new chapter to the Copyright Act and directed the Copyright Office to stand up a three-member tribunal. After a planning period that covered final rules and an online case system, the Board began accepting claims in June 2022. Everything runs online: filing, service, evidence, hearings.
The reason it exists is cost arithmetic. Copyright cases live in federal district court, and federal litigation routinely costs more than a small creator can recover. A photographer whose portfolio got scraped, the situation behind most of our DMCA work for photographers, or a small studio whose assets were ripped, a constant theme in takedown cases for game developers, can hold a valid claim worth a few thousand dollars with no economical way to pursue it. Congress built the CCB for exactly that gap.
The Board's docket covers three dispute types: claims of infringement, claims for a declaration of noninfringement, and claims under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f) for knowing material misrepresentation in a DMCA notice. That last one matters more than people realize. Respondents are not defenseless in this system, and a claimant who filed a knowingly false takedown can end up on the losing side of a section 512(f) claim. All of it is decided under United States copyright law.
The $30,000 and $15,000 Caps: How CCB Damages Work
Two ceilings define the money. Total monetary relief in a single CCB proceeding cannot exceed $30,000, no matter how many claims or counterclaims get folded in. If you elect statutory damages instead of actual damages, the award is capped at $15,000 per work.
Statutory damages are the Board's main draw for creators who cannot document lost income. You skip proving exactly what the infringement cost and ask the Board to set a number within the permitted range. We cover how statutory damages work in detail elsewhere. The trade: federal court allows up to $150,000 per work for willful infringement under § 504(c), and we break down copyright infringement penalties separately. The CCB caps at $15,000 per work, with no willfulness multiplier.
Actual damages and profits remain on the menu. You can mix remedies, actual damages for one work, statutory damages for another, so long as the total stays under the $30,000 proceeding cap.
Attorneys' fees are generally not available. The one exception is bad faith: the Board may order a party who acted in bad faith to pay the other side's costs and fees. Exaggerated or harassing claims carry real downside in both directions.
Opt-Out Mechanics: The Rule That Shapes Every CCB Claim
Every respondent gets one free, unconditional exit. After the Board accepts your claim and you serve the notice of initiation, the respondent has a short window to respond or opt out. Under the schedule in place when the Board opened, the window ran 14 days from service, and the Office has adjusted rules since, so the date printed on the notice controls. Opting out costs nothing, requires no explanation, and carries no penalty. The claim is dismissed without prejudice, and you can still bring the identical case in federal district court.
This mechanic drives strategy more than anything else. A determined infringer with counsel will likely opt out, and your filing fee will have bought a formal invitation to a federal lawsuit you may not want to fund. Against individuals and small operators the math flips: a CCB claim functions as a structured, credible settlement demand with a hearing date attached. Plenty of respondents decide that participating and settling beats paying a lawyer to fight.
One quirk catches people. A respondent who never responds at all produces a dismissal, not a default. Silence ends the claim without prejudice. Only after a respondent participates and the case enters its active period can later abandonment support a default determination, enforceable in district court. So service has to reach a real person at a correct address, and the respondent has to engage before anything sticks.
Copyright Claims Board Procedure and Fees, Step by Step
A CCB case runs in a defined sequence:
- Register the work, or at least start. The Board's rules require the work to be registered with the Copyright Office, or to have a registration application on file that predates the CCB claim, a lower bar than federal court, where United States works must generally be registered before suit. If registration still feels optional, our article on whether copyright registration is worth it covers the economics.
- File through eCCB, the Board's online case system. You identify the works, the infringing acts, and the remedy you want.
- Wait out compliance review. CCB staff screen the claim for completeness and jurisdiction; the merits are not judged at this stage.
- Serve the respondent. You handle service of the notice of initiation, using methods the rules allow. Getting the respondent's correct legal name and address is half the battle; when a site hides its operator, identifying who owns the domain comes first.
- The response window runs. The respondent responds, opts out, or stays silent, silence means dismissal, not default.
- The active period begins. Discovery is deliberately narrow: a few document requests and interrogatories, no depositions. Cases live or die on evidence, so be fluent in how to prove you own the content before filing.
- Hearing and determination. The Board holds a remote hearing, accepts written submissions, and issues a written determination. Determinations are published but bind only the parties.
Fees stay modest. The schedule in effect when the Board opened set filing at $100 for a claim covering up to two works and $200 for larger claims; respondents pay nothing to appear or opt out. The Office can adjust these figures, so confirm the current schedule before filing. Against federal litigation costs, that gap is the entire argument for the forum.
Enforcing a CCB Determination in Federal District Court
A determination is not self-executing. The Board cannot collect, garnish, or seize anything. To turn a win into money, the prevailing claimant files the determination in federal district court in the district where the respondent resides or does business, and the court enters it as a judgment.
Review is narrow. A respondent can object on limited grounds, lack of jurisdiction, due process failures, fraud, misconduct by the Board, but there is no general appeal on the merits. Someone who simply disagrees with the outcome has essentially no second bite.
Once entered, it behaves like any money judgment. Collection runs through the ordinary tools, garnishment, liens, writs of execution, with the ordinary limits. If the respondent has no assets, the judgment is a certificate, not compensation. Before filing any claim, ask frankly whether the other side can pay four or five figures. The Board gets you a cheap enforceable judgment. It cannot make the debtor solvent.
What the Copyright Claims Board Cannot Do
No removal orders. The Board awards money only. It cannot issue injunctions, order a host to take content down, or compel any platform to act. Removal still runs through the DMCA process, platform reporting systems, or a court order, and the practical difference between a takedown notice and a court order is bigger than most people assume.
No answer to the counter-notice trap. If you file a DMCA takedown and the uploader answers with a counter-notice, § 512(g) lets the platform restore the material in 10 to 14 business days unless you file a court action seeking to restrain the infringement. A CCB proceeding does not qualify, the Board is not a court and cannot grant injunctive relief. If keeping the content down is the priority, learn what a DMCA counter-notice is and what happens after one arrives before spending a filing fee.
No precedent, no deep discovery. Determinations bind only the parties, discovery is intentionally thin, and there is no mechanism for joining fifty defendants or taking a dozen depositions. For a small claim, those constraints are the feature, not a defect.
One more thing, stated plainly. WebDMCA is a takedown and content-protection service, not a law firm. We do not litigate and do not file CCB claims for clients. The work we do, documenting infringement, removing copies, escalating where needed, is the groundwork that makes a later money claim winnable.
When Copyright Small Claims Beats Federal Court
The CCB wins on economics in a defined set of cases. It fits when your realistic recovery sits under $30,000, when money rather than removal is the goal, and when the respondent is likely to participate rather than opt out. Timing matters too: the Board is built to finish cases in months, while federal cases take years to reach trial.
The profiles line up neatly. A musician chasing one unauthorized commercial use, the core scenario in DMCA takedowns for musicians. An author facing a seller reselling pirated copies, a constant theme in takedown work for authors. A creator whose product is being undercut by a copycat. In each case the harm is real, provable, and worth a few thousand dollars, but uneconomical at federal litigation rates. Against a soft respondent, the claim often produces a settlement, because opting out merely clears your path to district court.
Federal court is the better tool when you need an injunction, when damages will clearly exceed $30,000, when willfulness justifies chasing the higher § 504(c) numbers, when you need broad discovery or many defendants, or when fee-shifting under § 505 is realistic. If a counter-notice clock is running, only a federal case keeps the content down. Our guide on when to hire a copyright lawyer covers the escalation.
For pure removal, takedowns still come first. Copycat listings on Amazon or eBay, mirrored sites, scraped galleries, a documented DMCA notice resolves those in days, for a fraction of any filing fee. The CCB is the second move, for when the copying is commercial and you want to be paid.
Copyright Claims Board FAQ
Can the Copyright Claims Board order infringing content taken down?
No. The Board awards damages only. It cannot issue injunctions, order hosts to remove material, or compel platforms to act. If stopping the copying is the priority, use the DMCA process or the platform's reporting system first. The CCB is the follow-up tool for when the harm is financial and you can identify a respondent who can pay.
What happens if the respondent opts out of my CCB claim?
The claim is dismissed without prejudice, and the respondent pays no penalty and gives no explanation. You keep every right, including filing the same claim in federal court. Opt-outs are common among represented respondents, so size up the other side before filing. The Board works best against parties who want the problem resolved.
What if the respondent never responds to the CCB notice?
Nothing sticks. A respondent who ignores the notice of initiation produces dismissal without prejudice, not a default. Only after the respondent participates and the active period begins can abandonment lead to a default determination. That rule is why accurate service, on the right legal name at the right address, matters so much here.
Do I need to register my copyright before filing a CCB claim?
Generally yes, though the bar is lower than in federal court. The Board's rules require the work to be registered, or to have a registration application on file that predates your CCB claim. Federal court generally requires completed registration before suit on United States works. Register first either way; it also makes statutory damages available, usually the practical remedy here.
Do I need a lawyer at the Copyright Claims Board?
No. The Board was designed for self-represented parties: no depositions, narrow discovery, remote hearings. Lawyers may appear, and some law school clinics handle CCB matters. Counsel earns its fee when counterclaims appear, when the facts are seriously contested, or when the amount at stake justifies strategy help.
Your Next Steps Before Filing a Small Copyright Claim
- Register the work today. If the application is not filed, submit it before anything else, the Board's timing rules hang on it.
- Preserve evidence while it exists: URLs, dated screenshots, licensing records, correspondence, and any sales data from the infringer. Our Copy Scanner maps where your content currently appears.
- Clear the easy copies with DMCA takedowns first. Removal is faster and cheaper than any claim, and a clean record of notices strengthens a later damages case.
- Do the candid math. A provable loss of a few hundred dollars rarely justifies the effort. Four or five figures from one identifiable, solvent respondent is the sweet spot.
- Pin down the respondent's legal name and service address before drafting anything. Service is your job, and errors waste the filing fee.
- Choose the forum deliberately: takedown first, CCB where the money justifies it, federal court when the facts outgrow the caps.
- Keep watch afterward. Protection Pro handles detection, takedowns, and escalation, so repeat infringement surfaces the week it appears, not the year.
If any of that is more than you want to carry alone, that is the work we do every day.