The Ringer Fellowship

In the ancient halls of Washington, beyond the stacks of rejected applications and deep within the shadowed chambers of copyright lore, there exists a fellowship whose name sounds so impossibly Tolkien-esque that many law students assume it must be parody.

But no. This is real.

The Barbara A. Ringer Copyright Honors Program— known among weary copyright travelers simply as The Ringer Fellowship— is an actual paid honors fellowship at the United States Copyright Office, and law students interested in copyright law genuinely should apply.

And yes… someone really named it “The Ringer.”

Named for Barbara A. Ringer, the legendary eighth Register of Copyrights and one of the principal architects behind the monumental 1976 Copyright Act, the Fellowship summons promising young attorneys to spend eighteen to twenty-four months journeying through the deepest realms of American copyright law.

Ringer Fellows work beside the senior attorneys of the Office of General Counsel, the Office of Policy and International Affairs, the Office of the Register, and the Office of Registration Policy and Practice — places whispered about in law schools with the same reverence usually reserved for lost kingdoms and cursed artifacts.

There, Fellows confront:

• fair use,
• termination rights,
• statutory licenses,
• registration policy,
• international copyright disputes,
• and ancient scrolls known only as “the Compendium.”

Unlike many fellowships that merely decorate résumés like ornamental Elvish cloaks, this one provides something rarer: actual immersion in the machinery of the U.S. copyright system itself.

So yes, we are absolutely having fun with the fact that “The Ringer Fellowship” sounds like a quest involving hobbits, cursed manuscripts, and a flaming eye searching for unauthorized derivative works.

But make no mistake: this is a serious and prestigious opportunity for students who want to build careers in copyright law, policy, entertainment, media, publishing, music, technology, or intellectual property practice.