U.S. Supreme Court Rules That Unknowing Mistakes of Law Do Not Invalidate Copyright Registrations

• Date: 01 September 2022
• Author: Jason Bloom and Michael Lambert

Published in Landslide, Volume 15, Number 1, 2022. © 2022 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion

thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the

American Bar Association.

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BY JASON BLOOM AND

MICHAEL LAMBERT

Image: Getty Images; image manipulation: Jill Tedhams

U.S. Supreme Court Rules

That Unknowing Mistakes

of Law Do Not Invalidate

Copyright Registrations

The U.S. Supreme Court recently granted additional protec-

tions to those applying for a copyright registration. In

Unicolors v. H&M,1 the Court held, 6–3, that a copyright

holder can pursue a claim even when its registration includes inac-

curate information because of an innocent mistake of law (as long

as the error is not knowingly made) under § 411(b)(1)(A) of the

Copyright Act.2 The decision is important since a successful chal-

lenge to a copyright registration’s validity can often end a case in

its early stages.

Section 411(b) states that a copyright registration with inac-

curate information is valid unless the registrant included it “with