Supreme Court Decision in Unicolors v H&M
On February 24th, 2022, the Supreme Court has published a decision, Unicolors v H&M. Overall, the decision makes challenging the validity of a copyright registration much harder.
Copyright Registration and Infringement Lawsuits
Under the US Copyright Act, registration of a copyright is necessary to bring infringement suits. Therefore, alleged infringers often try to prove that the copyright registration is invalid. And on those grounds, the owner cannot bring the suit.
H&M’s Challenge to the Unicolors Registration
That strategy was used by H&M when Unicolors sued for infringement of several clothing patterns, and won at trial. H&M appealed, asserting that Unicolors’ registration was invalid due to an error in the application of the law.
The Key Legal Question Before the Court
The key question in Unicolors concerned mistakes in copyright registrations. Specifically, the Court asked whether both factual and legal mistakes can be excused.
Mistakes of Fact vs. Mistakes of Law
A factual error might involve the description of the work. Similarly, a legal error might involve the correct method of publication. Under the Copyright Act, a registration remains valid if the copyright holder lacked knowledge of the mistake. Importantly, the Act does not distinguish between mistakes of fact and mistakes of law. Also, the principle that “ignorance of the law is no excuse” generally applies only in criminal cases.
Therefore, the Court held that both types of errors are excused without actual knowledge.
Also, the principle that “ignorance of the law is no excuse” generally applies only in criminal cases.
Therefore, the Court held that both types of errors are excused without actual knowledge.
Impact of the Supreme Court’s Ruling
Overall, the decision imposes a higher burden on alleged infringers. Nevertheless, copyright associations and rightsholders welcomed the ruling. For example, the Copyright Alliance praised the decision in its commentary.
It titled the article “Supreme Court (Finally) Renders a Copyright Decision That’s Not for the Birds.”
Important Warning for Copyright Holders
However, copyright holders should still exercise caution. For instance, consciously closing one’s eyes to an error is known as willful blindness. Importantly, willful blindness will not save a registration from invalidation.
Courts may interpret willful blindness as knowledge of the error. If so, the registration could still be invalidated.
Other articles on Copyrights: Non-Fungible Tokens and Copyrights