Addressing for the first time the 2008 amendment to the
Copyright Act's effect on the standard for invalidating a
copyright registration, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th
Circuit held that a copyright registration may only be invalidated
with a showing that the registration contained material
inaccuracies and that the applicant had the "required scienter
of intentional purposeful concealment." Roberts, II v.
Gordy, et al., Case No. 16-12284 (11th Cir., Dec. 15, 2017)
(Titus, J, sitting by designation).
Following a district court's dismissal of appellants'
copyright infringement for lack of standing, an appeal was filed
arguing that the copyright registrations were improperly
invalidated under 17 USC § 411 because there was no showing of
scienter for nullification of a copyright registration.
Because the district court misapplied the test for invalidating
copyright registrations by failing to assess scienter, the
11th Circuit reversed and remanded the district
