United Fabrics International, Inc. v. Lane Bryant, Inc.

MEMORANDUM

The August 2006 registration of “Ethnic Collection X” was sufficient to support this infringement action under 17 U.S.C. § 411 (a) and to support the award of attorney’s fees under 17 U.S.C. § 412 (2). Ethnic Collection X meets the criteria for registration as a collection of unpublished works under 37 C.F.R. § 202.3 (b)(4)(B), see United Fabrics Int’l, Inc. v. C & J Wear, Inc., 630 F.3d 1255, 1259 (9th Cir.2011), and therefore the August 2006 registration registered not just the collection as such but “all copyrightable elements [within the collection] that are otherwise recognizable as self-contained works.” § 202.3(b)(4)(B).

The failure of United Fabrics (“UFI”) to note in its application that the Hailey design is a derivative work does not render the registration invalid; Lane Bryant has neither argued that it detrimentally relied on the omission nor pointed to any evidence that UFI intended to defraud the Copyright Office. See Jules Jordan Video, Inc. v. 144942 Canada Inc., 617 F.3d 1146, 1156 (9th Cir.2010). Furthermore, because Ethnic Collection X would still have been registerable even if the derivative nature of the Hailey design had been noted in the…