Good-Faith (Mis) Understanding: Unicolor v. H&M Case

Unicolors sued H&M for copyright infringement, asserting fabric design copyrights from among 31 of such designs that were filed as part of a single application on January 15, 2011. Unicolors prevailed in proving infringement after a jury trial, but the Ninth Circuit remanded the case, instructing the district court to refer the matter to the Register of Copyrights pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 411 (b) of the Copyright Act. Section 411(b) requires the Register to review allegations that a copyright applicant included "inaccurate information... on [an] application... with knowledge that it was inaccurate." The primary basis for referral here was that Unicolors inaccurately claimed that all of the 31 designs had been published by January 15, 2011 (which was required to file a single application for all of the designs), when it knew that some of those designs were not yet publicly available.