H&M Grilled by Justices Over Escape From Copyright Verdict (1)

Several U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical during oral argument Monday of the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of when a copyright registration should be invalidated for errors.

Unicolors Inc. secured a nearly $800,000 infringement and fees award after a jury found H&M Hennes & Mauritz LP copied its fabric designs. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit faulted the lower court for not granting H&M’s post-trial request to ask the copyright register for an opinion on whether errors in a group copyright application would have caused it to deny registration if it had known.

Unicolors argued that the ...