NOTABLE WINE INDUSTRY TRANSACTIONS:
Represented Dan Petroski in the sale of Massican, a rare white wine-only brand, to E & J Gallo.
Represented Axa Millésimes/Outpost in the acquisition of Sonoma’s Platt Vineyards.
Represented Joel and Sarah Gott in their acquisition of the historic Edge Hill Winery property and brand in St. Helena, California.
Represented Lawrence Wine Estates in its acquisition of the Luna Vineyards and Winery property, formerly known as the St. Andrews Winery on Silverado Trail in Napa.
Represented Lawrence Wine Estates in its acquisition of Stony Hill Winery in St. Helena.
Represented Lawrence Wine Estates in its acquisition of Burgess Cellars in St. Helena.
Advised the Pahlmeyer Winery in its sale of the Pahlmeyer and Jayson wine brands to E & J Gallo.
Represented Heitz Cellars in its acquisition of Wildwood Vineyard in Rutherford.
Represented Jim and Christine Bean in their acquisition of Brand Napa Valley Winery and vineyards.
Represented Lawrence Wine Estates in its acquisition of Haynes Cellars and vineyards in Napa.
Advised Frank and Kathy Dotzler in their sale of Outpost winery and vineyards in Angwin to AXA Millesimes.
Represented Lawrence Wine Estates in its acquisition of Heitz Cellars winery and vineyards in St. Helena.
Represented Shooting Gallery, Inc, and David Phinney in the sale of their worldwide “Locations” brands to E&J Gallo.
Represented Orin Swift Cellars and Dave Phinney in their sale of over 20 wine brands to E. & J. Gallo, including Abstract, Mercury Head, Machete, Mannequin, and Papillion.
Represented Mason Cellars in its sale of wine brands to Sutter Home, including its Wine Spectator Top 100 Pomelo label.
NOTABLE CASES:
Wine Industry Litigation: Blackbird vineyards, LLC v. Turkovich Family Wines, LLC, Wine Bridge Imports, LLC (trade dress infringement claim over use of bird flock imagery collectively the “Blackbird Marks”). Beckstoffer Vineyards v. Natural Selection 357 LLC (trademark infringement claim over use of the mark Crane in connection with vineyards and winery services); Rombauer Vineyards, Inc. v. Jam Cellars, Inc, et al. (trademark infringement and false advertising claim for unauthorized use of the Rombauer mark); Vintage Wine Estates v. Dan Cohn Wine Cellars (trademark infringement claim over use of the surname Cohn).
Confidential Parties: Prosecuted an arbitration proceeding on behalf of a wine producer for breach of contract regarding the sale of an iconic wine brand resulting in a confidential multi-million dollar settlement.
Arlie Hochschild et. al. v. C.A.R.L, Ltd.: Filed a class action copyright infringement lawsuit on behalf of freelance authors against a Knight-Ridder subsidiary for selling articles without obtaining copyright licenses. This case was notable in that it was the first copyright infringement case to be formally certified by a Federal Court as a class action. In a heavily disputed case that the defendants appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, we won two important rulings that led to a multi-million dollar settlement and significant payouts to hundreds of authors and several leading authors’ rights societies.
Real Restaurants, et al v. Dragonfly, LLC et. al. : Filed a trade dress infringement lawsuit on behalf of the then popular San Francisco Betelnut restaurant against the Dragonfly restaurant in Las Vegas for copying unique "trade dress" elements. The Federal Court granted our motion for a preliminary injunction and ordered Dragonfly to alter or remove counters, lighting, uniforms, menu items and barred it from further copying Betelnut’s trade dress. This case was notable in that at the time the only successful prior restaurant trade dress cases involved national restaurant chains or similarly located restaurants, while our case involved single restaurants in different states. Faced with an injunction, the defendants modified their restaurant and paid a confidential monetary settlement.
NOTABLE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND CONTENT ACQUISITIONS:
The Police Reunion Tour: Negotiated exclusive tour title sponsorship rights for this highly-anticipated concert tour. The Police had not reunited for a public show for nearly 20 years and the tour was a sell-out in every major city. The sponsorship deal included a multi-million dollar marketing campaign, on-site VIP areas, streaming and exclusive DVD rights.
Farm Aid: Negotiated multi-year exclusive tour sponsorship rights for the annual Farm Aid music festival held by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young that included rights to exclusive music content and other highly valuable rights.
Time Square Venue Naming Rights: Negotiated exclusive naming rights to a major live show venue on Broadway in Times Square that included title sponsorship rights to promote our client's brand on marquis signage, tickets, advertising, hospitality and VIP rights, use of venue for private corporate events, and numerous other branding rights.
Exclusive Content and Products Rights: Negotiated rights to highly valuable exclusive music and film content for a Fortune 100 client from The Rolling Stones, Elton John, U2, Mariah Carey, Dave Matthews, The Who, Justin Timberlake, Tom Petty, Guns ‘N Roses, Prince, Taylor Swift and many other high value entertainment properties. These transactions typically involved the acquisition of rights to exclusive music, film footage, and national TV advertising campaigns to promote and build client brands and products resulting in over $100 million in sales of exclusive DVD and CD products.