BY WENDY HEILBUT, PARTNER
We love getting the call from an emerging company or startup client who is ready to embark on a fundraising round: this step shows growth, proof of concept, and drive toward expansion. Similarly, when we work with a new venture capital fund in its capital raising efforts, we enjoy fantasizing with the fund managers on how they will utilize the new capital to bring about the fund’s thesis or mission. While we relish celebrating these moments, we’ve seen first-hand that unfortunately, minority founders and fund managers historically recoup a disproportionately small amount of private capital…
Continue Reading You’re an Investor! and You’re an Investor! and You’re an Investor! Can We All Be Investors In Private Capital?

BY MICHELLE BUTLER, SENIOR ASSOCIATE AND SRINIDHI KRISHNAN, INTERN
Companies have been using giveaways as a promotional tool for decades, but they have become increasingly popular as companies ramp up their digital marketing efforts. Running a giveaway online is much easier than administering a mail-in or in-person sweepstakes, and these online promotions can go a long way in creating hype for your company. It’s no wonder that they’ve become so popular. Companies may want to quickly roll out a social media giveaway campaign after the launch of a product or in a moment when online engagement is particularly high, but,…
Continue Reading High Stakes for Sweepstakes: Considerations for Proper Promotions

 
BY VICTORIA MINNEMAN, ASSOCIATE
Can you imagine owning the elusive Birkin bag? Starting at around $10,000, for most people this would be considered out of reach, out of budget—even out of this world—in terms of expense and extravagance.
As a trademark attorney, I try to teach my daughter as much as I can about brands and the importance of protecting what belongs to the people that create them. We often discuss brand name clothes, shoes, stores and purses. We spend time dreaming of what it would be like to own a wardrobe full of Christian Louboutin’s or Jimmy Choo’s…
Continue Reading The MetaBirkin: To Be or Not to Be

Exploring the in’s and out’s, what if’s, and but’s for C-Suite matters.
BY ERICA KERMAN, SENIOR ASSOCIATE

As an early-stage founder or executive, you may be asked for equity by employees, potential hires, advisors and others. Here are some pointers so you feel on top of the game in those conversations.

1. When and why issue equity in your company?
Companies will often grant equity to initial hires and contractors who provide key services to the company. There are several reasons why you may grant equity in your company, but two of the most common are:
• To attract and…
Continue Reading Suite Talk: Equity

How big is the market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs)? In Q4 2021 alone, crypto collectors bought and sold $11 billion worth of NFTs—a figure roughly equivalent to what the entire contemporary art market sold during the same period. But even as the NFT market has exploded, it has also run into a problem familiar to the art and luxury goods markets: counterfeit works. Many experts have said that OpenSea—the Amazon of NFT marketplaces—has conceded that approximately 80% of the works on its platform are not authentic. This is unacceptable and reflects a failure to pass laws that would help protect…
Continue Reading An OpenSea of Fakes

 
The International Olympic Committee (“IOC”) is the governing body that manages most aspects of the Olympic Games, including the broadcast of any footage from the Olympic Games. In an effort to raise funds, the IOC sells its broadcast rights to various networks and these rights allow the networks to exclusively show the Games on television, radio, the internet, etc. This practice raises billions of dollars for the IOC and that money is, for the most part, allocated to maintaining the committee, as well as the event itself. For context, in 2014, NBC paid $7.75 billion for the rights to…
Continue Reading Copyrights at the Olympics

 
Fashion as an ‘artform’ and fashion as an ‘industry subject to legal protections’ exist as two somewhat inconsistent concepts. In the artistic context, the garment as worn can be considered secondary to the creative vision of the designer. Pyer Moss’ recent collection comes to mind. Kerby Jean-Raymond, the tour de force designer of the Pyer Moss label, designed the garments in his recent collection to serve as statement art pieces rather than items of clothing to be worn. The collection was a celebration of inventions created by black inventors throughout history and included garments with outlandish embellishments such as…
Continue Reading The Realities (and Art) of Fashion IP