diff --git a/misc-scripts/annual_copyright_updater.sh b/misc-scripts/annual_copyright_updater.sh
index ca6e52079db1a24b59d0f7527bb787cbc5c76a62..6363dc10fa8f8fcdc043dd69977fe51ab2d4c7cf 100755
--- a/misc-scripts/annual_copyright_updater.sh
+++ b/misc-scripts/annual_copyright_updater.sh
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@ for var in $dirs; do
   year=$(date "+%Y")
   last_year=$(($year - 1))
 
-  search="\\[1999-[0-9]*\\] Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute"
-  replacement="[1999-2015] Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute\nCopyright [2016] EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute"
+  search="^\(.*\)\\[1999-[0-9]*\\] Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute"
+  replacement="\1[1999-2015] Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute\n\1[2016] EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute"
 
   echo "About to scan $(pwd) for files to replace '$search' with '$replacement'"