Fashion & Intellectual Property
Short video from FedSoc Films
Short video from FedSoc Films
Fashion is a three trillion dollar a year industry with a 100% participation rate. So how do companies like Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and Christian Louboutin promote their brands globally while still protecting their designs?
To what extent are creators, from individual fashion designers to million-dollar brands, protected under intellectual property law? How do you balance protecting IP with fostering innovation? Lawyers, law professors, and industry experts discuss the role of intellectual property in the fashion industry, explaining three recent cases that continue to spark debate on design protection in the United States.
Featuring:
As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.
Founder and Managing Partner, Amineddoleh & Associates, LLP
With over a decade of litigation experience , Leila A. Amineddoleh is the Founder and Managing Partner of Amineddoleh & Associates, LLP where she specializes in art, cultural heritage, and intellectual property law. She began her career as an associate at Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto, where she specialized in high-stakes intellectual property litigation, and then worked Of Counsel at Lombard & Geliebter where she founded the firm’s art law group. She next co-founded an art and intellectual property law firm, and after two years of a successful practice there, Ms. Amineddoleh established her own firm to better suit the needs of her clients.
Ms. Amineddoleh is involved in all aspects of due diligence and litigation, and has extensive experience in arts transactional work. She has represented major art collectors and dealers in matters related to high-profile multi-million dollar contractual disputes, international cultural heritage law violations, the recovery of stolen art, and complex fraud schemes. As a leading specialist in art authentication, she collaborates with the world’s foremost forensic scientists and art historians to assist collectors and arts institutions through the complex authentication process. She also advises clients on the acquisition and sale of fine arts and cultural heritage works.
Ms. Amineddoleh proudly works with artists and entrepreneurs to protect their work and artistic rights, and develop intellectual property portfolios. She is also a certified legal mediator. She has been published extensively on issues related to art, cultural heritage, and intellectual property, and has appeared in major news outlets, including the New York Times, Forbes Magazine, The Guardian, TIME Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. She also served as the art law and art crime correspondent for Artsy, and has had scholarly contributions published in books, including Nazi Law: From Nuremberg to Nuremberg.
As an advocate for the protection of cultural heritage, Ms. Amineddoleh also serves as a consultant to the New York District Attorney’s Office for antiquities investigations.
Ms. Amineddoleh is a recognized expert in art, cultural heritage, and intellectual property law, and teaches International Art & Cultural Heritage Law at Fordham University School of Law, in addition to Art Crime and the Law at New York University. She was privileged to serve as the Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation from 2013 through 2015. Ms. Amineddoleh is also a musician and regularly performs the piano in and around New York City.
Partner, Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP
Jura Christine Zibas is co-chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property practice and a member of the Information Governance Leadership Committee. She has an extensive technology background and focuses her legal practice on intellectual property and related commercial matters. Relying on her scientific and analytical skill sets, Jura assists in solving legal issues that involve intellectual property rights, cybersecurity and complex business disputes.
Jura has broad experience with matters involving the protection, licensing and acquisition of patents, copyrights and trademarks, privacy and data security issues, and technology/software disputes. Trained in chemistry and dentistry, Jura handles various types of complex civil matters that involve a scientific, software or technology component, including the defense of medical institutions, dentists and other medical professionals in malpractice cases. Jura’s work on intellectual property, data privacy and security matters, and civil matters includes the management of clients’ risks and expansion activities. Further leveraging her experience in complex disputes, representation includes, for example, large online retailers in data breach and intellectual property, health care companies in government investigations and regulatory issues, and software developers in breach and fraud. In addition, she has advised on cyber risks in protecting millions of patient health information records and data privacy breach cases for various businesses. When resolving government investigations, Jura assists health care companies and pharmacies with oversight in dealing with federal and state regulations. She represented clients in lengthy corruption and money laundering/wire fraud cases brought by the U.S. Attorney and defended a utility company executive in the bribery of public officials. Jura continues to handle general liability and all civil litigation matters for various types of businesses.
Jura takes an analytical approach in providing her clients with logical solutions to help meet their business challenges and goals. She quickly processes technical and financial data to gain an understanding of her clients’ overall business model as well as the economics behind a particular case. Her science and technology background is of particular value to her clients in the medical, durable medical equipment, health care, construction, manufacturing, computer and engineering fields.
Of Counsel, Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP
Lee is an internationally renowned intellectual property and corporate lawyer and a leader in the fashion and retail law industry. His focus is on clients in the luxury goods, fashion and retail industries. Lee has extensive experience over a broad range of legal matters including intellectual property, licensing, marketing, transactional, securities, commercial and retail real estate, and employment.
Lee has served as General Counsel and in key management positions, most recently as Senior Vice President - Business Affairs, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Michael Kors Holdings Limited. He was part of the senior management team that over his thirteen year tenure transformed the company into one of the most successful fashion brands in the world, culminating in the company’s successful initial public offering in 2011.
Prior to Michael Kors, Lee was Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Kasper A.S.L., Ltd., and he spent over eleven years at Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation, including as its Vice President of Intellectual Property and Associate General Counsel. His areas of responsibility included initial public offerings, product and territorial licensing, acquisitions and management of substantial licensees, joint venture agreements, supervision of major litigation, managing and enforcing the global intellectual property portfolio, and a range of compliance and legal issues relating to all production, advertising and public relations matters.
Lee was awarded the Luxury Law Summit's Lifetime Achievement Award. He is at the forefront of academic and industry leadership, including serving as Professor from Practice at Cardozo Law School where he helped create, and is now Co-Director of, its unique Fashion, Arts, Media and Entertainment Law Center (FAME). In addition, he serves as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and Adjunct Professor at Villanova Law School. Lee is a contributor to Fashion Law, A Guide for Designers, Fashion Executives & Attorney (Fairchild Books, 2014), and was the project creator and co-editor of the seminal treatise, Trademark Counterfeiting (Aspen Law & Business, 1999). He served as Chairman of the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition and served on its board as a member of its Executive Committee for over a decade, and has been a frequent lecturer to federal, state and local law enforcement personnel, as well as to the trade, on matters relating to intellectual property protection and licensing. Sporn has been featured in publications including Corporate Counsel, Global Legal Post and Women’s Wear Daily.
Sporn received his J.D. Magna Cum Laude from Brooklyn Law School where he was a notes editor on the Brooklyn Law Review and received the Stanley Nathanson Award for outstanding leadership & scholarship. Following Brooklyn Law School, Sporn was an associate at Proskauer Rose. He received his B.A. at Oberlin College of Arts & Sciences and Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Founder, Canary Global Strategic
Ryan Triplette has spent the majority of her professional career seeking to understand the policy implications of some of the most complex issues - with a focus on intellectual property, security, and competition matters - facing businesses today. She founded Canary Global Strategic after deciding to relocate to Europe, seeking to combine the expertise obtained working with early stage and mature companies with expanding relationships across the European professional community, to provide invaluable resource for business interests seeking to engage policymakers on a range of issues of international import.
Prior to founding Canary, Ryan was a Principal at the Franklin Square Group, a bipartisan boutique firm based in Washington, DC specializing in technology issues. While at the Franklin Square Group, she advised some of the most innovative technology companies in the world as they entered new and generally regulatory heavy markets.
Ryan also previously served as Director of Government Relations for the Intel Corporation. During her tenure at Intel, she handled the strategic legislative and political engagement of Republican offices and members in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. In this capacity, she served as an advocate on a wide range of issues including: competition policy, cybersecurity, immigration, intellectual property, privacy, tax, telecom, and trade.
Before joining the private sector, Ryan served on the Senate Judiciary Committee for six years as Counsel and then Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for the Full Committee under the Republican Leadership of Senators Hatch (R-UT) and Specter (PA), respectively. While on the committee, she worked on intellectual property and civil law reform legislation, the Supreme Court nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito, and the passage of nearly a dozen bills into law.
The culmination of these experiences contribute significantly to her in depth knowledge of how to effectively navigate the legislative and political processes.
Ryan is a member of the Virginia State Bar and holds a J.D. from University of Richmond School of Law and B.A. in Philosophy and Communication Studies from Vanderbilt University.
In her personal time, she sits on the board of several organizations devoted to mentoring individuals interested in the intersection of law and politics.
Academic Director, Fashion Law Institute, Fordham University School of Law
Susan Scafidi is the first professor ever to offer a course in Fashion Law, and she is internationally recognized for her leadership in establishing the field. She has testified regarding the proposed extension of legal protection to fashion designs and continues to work actively with members of Congress and the fashion industry on this and other issues. Her additional areas of expertise encompass property, intellectual property, cultural property, international law, trusts &estates, and legal history. Professor Scafidi founded and directs the nonprofit Fashion Law Institute, which was established with the generous support and advice of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and its president, Diane von Furstenberg, and is located at Fordham Law School. Prior to teaching at Fordham, Professor Scafidi was a tenured member of both the law and history faculties at SMU, and she has taught at a number of other schools, including Yale, Georgetown, and Cardozo.
Professor of Practice; Director, Fashion, Arts, Media & Entertainment (FAME) Law Center, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Barbara Kolsun, co-director of The Fame Center, is a leading fashion industry attorney, an adjunct professor of fashion law at Cardozo Law, and co-editor of the seminal text on the subject, Fashion Law – A Guide for Designers, Fashion Executives and Attorneys (Bloomsbury, 2nd Edition, 2014). She is a consultant to fashion companies and has taught at NYU and Fordham Law Schools. Barbara has served as General Counsel of Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman and Seven for All Mankind, and was Assistant General Counsel of Westpoint Stevens and Calvin Klein Jeans. While in private practice, her clients included Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger. Kolsun currently consults with fashion companies on various issues, and was honored with lifetime achievement awards in 2015 by both the Luxury Summit in London and the World Trademark Forum at INTA. She has served as Chairman of the Board of the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition and has spoken and been published widely on fashion law around the world. Cardozo's FAME Center for fashion, arts, media and entertainment law.
A consultant to fashion companies and has taught at NYU and Fordham Law Schools.
Kolsun started the legal departments and was the first General Counsel of Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman and Seven for All Mankind, and was Assistant General Counsel of Westpoint Stevens and Calvin Klein Jeans. As outside counsel in several firms, she represented Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger. Kolsun currently consults with fashion companies on various issues, and was honored with two lifetime achievement awards in 2015 by the Luxury Summit in London and by the World Trademark Forum at INTA. She has devoted significant time and effort to the cause of enforcement of intellectual property serving as Chairman of the Board of the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition and has spoken and been published widely on fashion law around the world.
She has been the subject of stories in numerous publications, including the New York Times, and was a consultant in intellectual property to USAID's Start Vietnam program in 2002 and 2004.
Kolsun clerked for the Second Circuit after her graduation from Cardozo in 1982. She received her J.D. from Cardozo Law in 1982 and is a member of the Order of the Coif. She received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 1971 and her experience as a professional singer and actress continues to motivate her fierce efforts to protect artists' and designers' intellectual property rights.
Doniger/Burroughs APC
Over the past five years, Mr. Doniger has handled more copyright cases than any other attorney in the United States, with his firm named as the top copyright litigation firm in Lex Machina’s 2015 Copyright Litigation Report. He has also prevailed in every copyright matter taken to trial, and has been lead trial counsel in many of the largest copyright verdicts in the Central District, including: Advanced Visual Image Design, LLC v. Exist, Inc., Case No. 2:10-cv-09383 ($1,754,272 verdict), United Fabrics International v. Lane Bryant, et al., Case No. CV08-6865 ($447,670 verdict), Caribbean Blues, Inc. v. Target Corp., et al., Case No. CV10-3334 ($389,638 verdict). He has also realized numerous six and seven figure settlements in his clients’ favor, including a $1.1 million settlement in favor of his client on the day of trial in Star Fabrics, Inc. v. Morex, Inc. et al., Case No. CV-10-7987, and a low seven-figure settlement in L.A. Printex Industries, Inc. v. William Carter Co., Case No. CV09-02449 which was negotiated in the middle of a bifurcated trial after he obtaining a willful copyright infringement liability verdict.
Since prevailing in his first trial as a sole practitioner in 1997 (One World Marketing v. MEK Int’l, Case No. BC 193556 – trademark infringement / trade secret theft jury verdict for plaintiff of $550,000), he has built a successful practice around business disputes in general and intellectual property in particular, representing photographers, authors, fine artists, and clients in the marketing, fashion, entertainment, real estate and hospitality industries. And in his 20+ years of practice Mr. Doniger has successfully litigated cases in the federal and state courts of California, New York, Nevada, and South Carolina, and has overseen litigation in foreign jurisdictions including Canada and the United Kingdom through local counsel.
Mr. Doniger has also successfully handled numerous state and federal appeals, including arguing before the Second Circuit to affirm a willful infringement verdict he obtained at trial before the Southern District of New York in LA Printex Ind., Inc. v. Pretty Girl, Inc. et al., prevailing in LA Printex Industries, Inc. v. Aeropostale, Inc., et al, (9th Cir. Case No. 10-56149 – January 12, 2012 reversal of summary judgment against Doniger/ Burroughs client) and United Fabrics International v. Lane Bryant, et al. (9th Cir. Case No. 10-56169 – 12/20/11 substantially affirming of Doniger / Burroughs trial verdict).
Mr. Doniger has been selected by Global Law Experts as its exclusive copyright law expert for California, has been a featured speaker on copyright, trademark, and misappropriation of likeness law for California Lawyers for the Arts, Fashion Business Incorporated and other groups, and has been retained as an expert witness on copyright litigation. He has also been profiled multiple times in the Daily Journal, which complimented that “he projects a thoughtful and ethical wisdom, particularly when it comes to practicing law,” and has featured and quoted in many other articles on intellectual property and business topics. Similarly, Doniger / Burroughs and its work has been featured in the Los Angeles Business Journal, Daily Journal, Los Angeles Weekly, and Fortune Magazine.
Mr. Doniger graduated from Brandeis University in 1992 with a double major in political science and philosophy, and a minor in international studies. In 1995 he obtained his law degree from the University of Southern California where he was a member of the Hale Moot Court Honors program, externed for the Honorable Ronald S.W. Lew, interned for the District Attorney’s Office in the Environmental Crimes Division, and was a California State Bar Environmental Law Section student writing competition winner.
