Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-915_pol1.pdf
Page Number: 8.0

Cite as:  595 U. S. ____ (2022) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

  Our reasons are straightforward.  For one thing, we fol-
low the text of the statute.  See Hardt v. Reliance Standard 
Life  Ins.  Co.,  560  U. S. 242,  251 (2010).    Section 411(b)(1) 
says  that  Unicolors’  registration  is  valid  “regardless  of 
whether  the  [registration]  certificate  contains any  inaccu-
rate information, unless . . . the inaccurate information was 
included on the application for copyright registration with 
knowledge that it was inaccurate.”  Both case law and the 
dictionary tell us that “knowledge” has historically “meant 
and still means ‘the fact or condition of being aware of some-
thing.’ ”    Intel  Corp.  Investment  Policy  Comm.  v.  Sulyma, 
589 U. S. ___, ___ (2020) (slip op., at 6) (quoting Webster’s 
Seventh  New  Collegiate  Dictionary  469  (1967));  see  also 
Black’s  Law  Dictionary  888  (8th  ed.  2004);  New  Oxford 
American  Dictionary  938  (def. 2)  (2d  ed.  2005);  Webster’s 
New College Dictionary 625 (3d ed. 2008). 
  Unicolors  says  that,  when  it  submitted  its  registration 
application,  it  was  not aware  (as  the Ninth  Circuit would 
later hold) that the 31 designs it was registering together 
did not satisfy the “single unit of publication” requirement.  
If  Unicolors  was  not  aware  of  the  legal  requirement  that 
rendered  the  information  in  its  application  inaccurate,  it 
did  not  include  that  information  in  its  application  “with 
knowledge that it was inaccurate.”  §411(b)(1)(A) (emphasis 
added).    Nothing  in  the  statutory  language  suggests  that 
this  straightforward  conclusion  should  be  any  different 
simply because there was a mistake of law as opposed to a 
mistake of fact. 
  To the contrary, nearby statutory provisions help confirm 
that here “knowledge” refers to knowledge of the law as well 
as the facts.  Registration applications call for information 
that requires both legal and factual knowledge.  See, e.g., 
§409(4)  (whether  a  work  was  made  “for  hire”);  §409(8) 
(when  and  where  the  work  was  “published”);  §409(9) 
(whether  the  work  is  “a  compilation  or  derivative  work”).  
Inaccurate information in a registration is therefore equally