On October 21, 2016, Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden named Karyn A. Temple Acting Register of Copyrights while a national search is conducted for a new permanent Register of Copyrights. Temple had served as Associate Register of Copyrights and director of policy and international affairs for the United States Copyright Office since January 30, 2013. Prior to that, she served as senior counsel in the Office of Policy and International Affairs.

As Associate Register, she assisted the Register of Copyrights with critical policy functions of the Copyright Office, including domestic and international policy analyses, legislative support, and trade negotiations. She directed the Office of Policy and International Affairs, which represents the Copyright Office at meetings of government officials concerned with the international aspects of intellectual property protection, and she provided regular support to Congress and its committees on statutory amendments and construction.

Prior to joining the Copyright Office, Temple served as senior counsel to the deputy attorney general of the United States, assisting with the formulation of U.S. Department of Justice policy on sensitive legal issues and helping to manage the department’s Task Force on Intellectual Property. She also spent several years in private practice at the Recording Industry Association of America and at the law firm Williams & Connolly, LLP. She began her legal career as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division through its Honors Program and also served as a law clerk to the Hon. Nathaniel R. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Temple earned her JD from the Columbia University Law School, where she was a senior editor of the Columbia Law Review and Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She earned her BA in English from the University of Michigan.