About
Apparel: During his 40 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 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 forty years of experience in consumer licensing. He is familiar with international and domestic licensing including revenue projections, monitoring of licensees, standards and practices of the licensing business, 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 40 years of experience with copyrights, Mr. Sarabia has provided opinions on originality and substantial similarity.
Design patents: defenses based on lack on originality, identify and analyze obviousness and prior art
Standards of Practice of Apparel Business Lawyers, Intellectual Property Lawyers and Licensing Lawyers: Based on his 40 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