Antonio R. Sarabia II

Antonio R. Sarabia II has 30 years of experience in consumer licensing, trademarks, copyrights and the apparel business. He is familiar with the standards and practices in consumer licensing and the apparel industry, including performance and breaches.

Services

Antonio R. Sarabia II has experience with consumer licensing (revenue, standards, performance and breaches), trademarks, copyrights, and the apparel business. He can testify, identify important issues and suggest discovery in his areas of expertise. His areas of expertise include secondary meaning, trade dress, design patents, similarity of marks, intellectual property due diligence, trademark and copyright infringement, theft of trademarks, and intellectual property analysis and valuation. He can evaluate licensee and licensor performance under the standards of the industry. In the apparel business he can review the performance of a wide array of agreements to determine if it is consistent with the standards of the industry.

Litigation Support Services

Mr. Sarabia provides litigation support and expert testimony for plaintiff and defendants on issues related to apparel business, consumer protection, licensing, copyrights and trademarks.

Areas of Expertise

Additional Expertise:

Victim Restitution; Standards of Practice of Apparel Business; Infringement.

Profile

IP Business Law Inc. in southern California is an expert witness in intellectual property and the apparel industry. Due to extensive work with retailers, founder Antonio Sarabia knows the variety of legal issues that clothing companies face daily. He understands the necessity of protecting the designs and work of the creative department.

In addition to knowledge of clothing and fashion designs, he has experience in reading and writing contracts, foreign manufacturing contracts and agency agreements. He understands international rights and has been consulted by foreign governments on property rights.

The firm also fights for clients who have intellectual property to protect. It has been part of thousands of negotiations regarding licensing of apparel or trademarks. Clients deal directly with attorneys who have knowledge of the industry.

Areas Served

All States

Professional Experience

Apparel: During his 30 years of experience, Mr. Sarabia has become intimately familiar with the many business problems - and legal issues - which fashion companies may face. The start of his apparel industry experience was nine remarkable years as part of the senior management of Guess?, Inc. Guess? went through amazing growth during this period, one year alone its sales grew 400%! In these nine years, Guess? transformed from a fad into a mainstay fashion company. Those who were fortunate enough to work there saw a variety of challenges, problems and issues which most apparel companies do not encounter over decades. This incredible environment immersed Mr. Sarabia into a wide array of apparel business matters including apparel designs, design creation, design protection, brand establishment and protection, advertising, domestic and foreign manufacturing, factory monitoring, quality control, export, import, customs issues, product sourcing, corporate structure, apparel company management, including officer and director obligations and performance, domestic and foreign distribution, licensing, trade secrets, personnel, independent sales representatives, retail sales, retail customer relations and wholesales.

Since leaving Guess?, Mr. Sarabia has advised a variety of other apparel companies from publicly held companies such as Gymboree to fast growing companies like Earl Jean to start up companies.

Mr. Sarabia has worked closely with prominent designers, and understands the importance of protecting the products of creative minds. Mr. Sarabia can review the performance of virtually all apparel industry agreements to determine if it is consistent with the standards of the industry. He has worked extensively on most facets of the clothing business and can provide expert testimony and analysis about a wide array of matters including contracts, manufacturing, import, management performance, export, sales, distribution, factory conditions, similarity of apparel lines and protection of designs.

Licensing: Mr. Sarabia has more than twenty years of experience in consumer licensing. He is familiar with international and domestic licensing including revenue projections, monitoring of licensees, standards of the industry, performance and breaches. He can evaluate licensee and licensor performance under the standards of the industry. He was an expert in licensing for the Vatican Library, Converse and Jones Apparel.

Trademarks: His work on trademarks has encompassed: international and domestic registration, secondary meaning, infringement, dilution, searches, investigations, due diligence, trade dress and counterfeiting in a variety of businesses such as software, food, real estate, concert promotion and apparel. He has testified for both plaintiffs and defendants.

Copyrights: Based on his 25 years of experience with copyrights, Mr. Sarabia has provided opinions on originality and substantial similarity.

In design patent cases he can prepare defenses based on lack of originality, and identify and analyze obviousness and prior art.

Standards of Practice of Apparel Business Lawyers, Intellectual Property Lawyers and Licensing Lawyers: Based on his 25 years of in-depth experience as a lawyer in the apparel business and with intellectual property and licensing law, Mr. Sarabia can provide expert opinions as to the standard of care of lawyers in these areas. He has provided such opinions for both defendants and plaintiffs.

Licenses

Licensed Real Estate Broker

Legal Experience & Services

Mr. Sarabia has testified in federal and state court, in criminal and civil cases, judge and jury trials, as well as at arbitrations.

Affiliations

Los Angeles County Bar
California State Bar
National Crime Victim Bar Association
National Crime Victims Law Institute

Professional References

Available upon request

Education

University of Chicago Law School, J.D. June 1978
Occidental College, Los Angeles, A.B. 1974 (magna cum laude),
Philosophy; Phi Beta Kappa