Fashion Industry
One of the more significant areas of the firm's practice is its fashion industry practice. Fashion industry clientele include both public and privately-held domestic and foreign apparel manufacturers, designers and retailers. While many of the firm's partners specialize in fields of particular interest to the fashion industry, such as intellectual property, licensing, franchising, real estate and labor (including union matters), attorneys throughout the firm provide our fashion industry clientele with substantial expertise in all areas of the law, including financing, bankruptcy and tax.
The firm also represents companies whose businesses are fashion industry-related, such as licensing representatives, public relations firms and entertainment companies involved in licensing their intellectual property, as well as the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the leading trade association of the apparel and footwear industries.
CLIENTS
The firm's fashion industry clients include or have included a large number of internationally known designers, apparel manufacturing companies, as well as other companies which manufacture footwear, accessories, fragrances, jewelry and handbags. The firm also represents companies whose businesses are fashion industry-related, such as licensing representatives, public relations firms and entertainment companies involved in the licensing of their intellectual property.
AREAS OF CONCENTRATION
Intellectual Property
Phillips Nizer has an active intellectual property practice which is international in scope. We have counseled and represented our textile, apparel and fashion industry clients, as both plaintiffs and defendants, in numerous matters involving trademark and trade dress infringements, counterfeiting, trade secrets, rights of publicity and privacy, and copyrights. We have obtained temporary restraining orders, injunctions and seizures where litigation has been necessary in the trademark area, and have successfully prosecuted copyright (including design copyright) infringement cases for our fashion industry clients as well as other clients in related fields. Our intellectual property group is very active in pursuing trademark counterfeiters and others engaged in unfair competition.
Licensing
We have been actively involved in fashion industry licensing work for decades. Phillips Nizer has acted as general counsel or special licensing counsel for our numerous designer clients and has also represented manufacturing clients, as both licensors and licensees, in hundreds of licensing transactions. These include not only pure licenses but also joint ventures and other business structures. In addition to traditional trademark and copyright licensing, the firm has been involved in "private label" licensing projects involving retailers. The firm is a member of the Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association.
Franchising and Retail Licensing
Phillips Nizer has broad franchising experience, representing both franchisors and franchisees and acting as franchise counsel to companies in many fields in addition to the fashion field, such as restaurants and convenience stores, food distribution, consumer products and modeling and employment agencies. In the apparel field, we have been involved with a substantial number of boutique franchise and licensing programs, including having served as franchise/boutique licensing counsel.
Real Estate
As general counsel to textile, apparel and fashion industry companies, Phillips Nizer services the real estate needs of our clientele. The firm assists in the acquisition and sale of commercial and residential properties, the financing and refinancing of such properties, as well as the leasing of office and retail space both for first line boutiques and for discount outlet stores.
Labor
Through our extensive representation of many textile and apparel industry manufacturers and trade associations, we have been involved in all aspects of union and employer-employee relations in the industry. Our representation has included the negotiation of a large number of collective bargaining agreements with apparel unions, including UNITE and its predecessors, the ILGWU and Textile Workers. We have also defended apparel firms in employment discrimination, wage hour, OSHA and other employment related matters and provided extensive counseling with respect to terminations, employee handbooks and employment agreements. We have also represented our organized clients in arbitrations, fund audits, multi-employer plan claims and other union related matters, including the often complex issues which arise in the purchase or sale of an organized firm. |
