diff --git a/tests/phpunit/tests/basic.php b/tests/phpunit/tests/basic.php
index 87ca86649a..f68fbeb962 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/tests/basic.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/tests/basic.php
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ class Tests_Basic extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 
 	function test_license() {
 		$license = file_get_contents( ABSPATH . 'license.txt' );
-		preg_match( '#Copyright (\d+) by the contributors#', $license, $matches );
+		preg_match( '#Copyright 2011-(\d+) by the contributors#', $license, $matches );
 		$this_year = date( 'Y' );
 		$this->assertEquals( $this_year, trim( $matches[1] ), "license.txt's year needs to be updated to $this_year." );
 	}