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Gold Value International Textile, Inc. v. Sanctuary Clothing, LLC, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 17-55818 · judgment June 4, 2019


Certiorari denied · March 9, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

  1. Can a court invalidate a copyright registration – and thus terminate a pending case – on the basis of a good-faith inclusion of inaccurate information on a copyright registration application, particularly when the putatively inaccurate information was not proven to be “included on the application for copyright registration with knowledge that it was inaccurate,” as required by 17 U.S.C. § 411(b)(1)(A)?

  2. Is a mistake as to the “publication” status of a work the type of mistake that “would have caused the Register of Copyrights to refuse registration” of the work had it known the correct “publication” status, as contemplated by 17 U.S.C. § 411(b)(1)(B)?

  3. If a court invalidates a copyright registration, should it terminate the action or shift the burden back to the copyright holder of providing ownership and originality of the copyrighted work at issue?

  4. Should attorneys’ fees be awarded under 17 U.S.C. § 505 to an alleged infringer who “prevailed” only because of a technical mistake in a copyright registration?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Scott Alan Burroughs
Doniger / Burroughs

For respondent
Jessica Strom Rutherford
Ferdinand IP, LLC

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Amicus briefs
1 cert-stage

Linked docket
19A438

Proceedings

  1. Mar 09 2020
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Feb 19 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/6/2020.
  3. Feb 03 2020
    Waiver of Sanctuary Clothing, LLC, et al. of right to respond not accepted for filing. (February 03, 2020 -- Corrected version to be submitted)
  4. Feb 03 2020
    Waiver of right of respondents Amazon.com, Inc. and Zappos IP, Inc. to respond filed.
  5. Feb 03 2020
    Brief of respondents Sanctuary Clothing, LLC, Bloomindale's, Inc., Dillard's, Inc., Macy's, Inc., and Nordstrom, Inc. in opposition filed.
  6. Jan 03 2020
    Brief amicus curiae of American Society of Media Photographers, Inc. filed.
  7. Dec 27 2019
    Blanket Consent filed by Petitioner, Gold Value International Textile, Inc.
  8. Dec 09 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including February 3, 2020.
  9. Dec 05 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from January 3, 2020 to February 3, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
  10. Nov 27 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due January 3, 2020)
  11. Oct 21 2019
    Application (19A438) granted by Justice Kagan extending the time to file until November 27, 2019.
  12. Oct 17 2019
    Application (19A438) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from October 28, 2019 to November 27, 2019, submitted to Justice Kagan.