Brand Protection in an Always-Connected World: Building an Action Plan to Guide Your Brand through a Corporate Crisis

Pamela Weinstock is Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc., where she is responsible for the areas of intellectual property, entertainment, and licensing for the global fashion brand, including prosecution, protection, and development of strategy for a worldwide trademark portfolio, management of intellectual property litigation and related matters, and negotiation, drafting, and counseling regarding inbound and outbound domestic and international licenses and entertainment agreements.

Previously, Ms. Weinstock handled intellectual property, entertainment, and licensing matters for the global beauty company, Coty Inc., the Writers Guild of America, East, the union for screenwriters in television and film, and was General Counsel for Gist Communications, Inc., an interactive television company. She also was an associate in the Intellectual Property department of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.

Ms. Weinstock received a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in History of Art from Yale College, a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Boston University School of Law, and an LL.M. in Intellectual Property (Trade Regulation) from New York University School of Law.

Mike Sparling has been in-house counsel for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. for nearly 20 years. His principal areas of responsibility include: 1) management of the intellectual property of 30 brands, encompassing more than 500 trademarks, 7,000 domain names, 70 copyrights, and several patents; 2) review of all marketing materials to ensure compliance with applicable laws; 3) drafting and revising a broad spectrum of transactional agreements (promotional, marketing, corporate services, information technology, vendor services, and others); 4) trademark litigation; and 5) research and strategic acquisition of valuable intellectual property.

Yen Chu acts as chief legal officer responsible for leading the Legal Dept. of Equinox Holdings, a global luxury lifestyle fitness and wellness company, with a portfolio of brands/business interests in Equinox Fitness, SoulCycle, Blink Fitness, PURE Yoga, Furthermore (digital magazine), and Equinox Hotels.

In her role, Yen oversees a team of lawyers with responsibility for financial and commercial transactions, dispute resolutions/complex litigation, corporate governance, employment matters, intellectual property portfolio, privacy/data protection matters, and marketing/sponsorship/licensing/retail initiatives.

Greg is Assistant General Counsel at BuzzFeed, Inc. where he handles intellectual property matters and legal support for the company’s advertising, marketing, and business teams. Greg began his legal career as an intellectual property litigator in New York. He was an early member of the Sports Law Practice Group at Proskauer and litigated for many years in Greenberg Traurig’s IP Litigation Dept. He took an eight year sabbatical from law and started his own film production company, Acmegram, before landing at BuzzFeed in 2014. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Georgetown University Law Center, and is very disappointed at the mediocre basketball seasons both schools had in 2015-16.