In This Issue:

- The Innovative Design Protection Act: Bound for Success or Doomed to Fail?

- Strategic Licensing Considerations

- New Faces

- Points from the President

- Think Again Before Walking Away from Second Trust Deeds in Bankruptcy

- You “Built” It, So Don’t Lose It: Estate Tax Laws to Change Dramatically on January 1, 2013

- Fashion Companies: A Step-By-Step Guide to Protection

- To Improve or Not to Improve? Pre-Disposition Preparation and Processing of Collateral

- Excerpt from Strategic Licensing Considerations:

Strategic licensing by companies to expand their brands into new product categories is a growing trend. Additionally, celebrities are now, more than ever, creating their own brands and entering into licensing arrangements to promote their celebrity status.

Strategic licensing arrangements enable a licensor to forge alliances with licensees who have expertise and presence in a particular brand category, thereby leveraging the licensee’s existing relationships. For example, licensing enables a licensor to off-load the manufacture and marketing costs of product categories that are not part of a licensor’s core business, open up new distribution channels, create new markets in new geographic areas, and extend core products into complementary products that might not otherwise be available.