Unicolors Inc. v. H&M, Is Your Copyright Registration Valid?

Michael Jacobs and Benjamin Fox authored an article for Law360 discussing the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Unicolors Inc. v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz LP that an applicant’s lack of knowledge of the facts or the law can excuse errors in a registration.

“Unicolors provides several takeaways,” the authors wrote. “First, authors and other creators of copyrighted works benefit from registering their works early and often. The U.S. Copyright Office’s online portal provides much of what a nonlawyer needs to complete a successful registration.”

They added: “For defendants challenging copyright registration, a path to victory still remains. The majority opinion invites litigants to turn to circumstantial evidence to demonstrate that an applicant was ‘actually aware of, or willfully blind to,’ inaccurate information. Discovery into the copyright registrant’s relevant experience and the circumstances leading to inaccuracies in a registration may bear fruit.”

Read the full article.