Made A Mistake With Your Copyright Registration? You May Be Forgiven

Intellectual property rights for artists and creators were strengthened last week when the Supreme Court sided with Unicolors in its copyright infringement dispute with fast-fashion retailer H&M. The Supreme Court held in Unicolors, Inc. v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, LP (Case No. 20-915) that inadvertent legal mistakes cannot form the basis for invalidating a copyright registration.

A copyright registration is a prerequisite to bringing a claim for copyright infringement. However, a copyright registration may be invalid if it contains inaccurate information and the registrant knew of the inaccuracies. See 17 U.S.C. § 411(b). This is the exact issue considered by the Supreme Court here.

Unicolors secured a copyright infringement decision against H&M in district court, but the Ninth Circuit reversed on the basis that the relevant copyright registration contained inaccuracies that Unicolors knew of.

In a 6-3 opinion, the Supreme Court noted that Congress intended “to make it easier, not more difficult, for nonlawyers to obtain valid copyright registrations,” and that invalidating registrations for “good-faith misunderstandings of copyright law” would not serve Congress’ intent.

This decision benefits artists and creators, especially those without legal representation, because it makes it less likely for an infringer to escape liability due to a technical mistake in the copyright registration process.

This decision is further important due to the interplay between the timing of a copyright registration and infringement. In order to secure statutory damages in an infringement claim, the asserted work must be registered prior to the alleged infringement (or within three months of publication of the work). If a registration secured prior to an infringement were to be invalidated at trial due to an innocent legal mistake, then recovery of statutory damages would be foreclosed because any correction of that innocent legal mistake would lead to a new registration issued after the alleged infringement. The Supreme Court’s decision protects against this outcome and preserves the possible recovery of statutory damages.