Mario Batali Licensees Halting Production

The fallout from allegations of sexual misconduct against celebrity chef Mario Batali is hitting the licensing industry. Batali licensee Zidian Manufacturing Corp., which makes his pasta sauces that are sold through Target, says it’s halting production of the brand.   Batali also has agreed to “forego any profits that he might receive from the sale of these products,” CEO Thomas Zidian said.  Target also said it was removing the pasta sauce from store shelves.  Zidian, which makes pasta sauces under own Gia Russa brand, also has a license with celebrity chef Guy Fieri. Meanwhile, Belcampo Meat Co., which produced Batali spicy pepperoni and traditional salami, also said it is “suspending” its business with the chef.

Contact:

Zidian Manufacturing Corp, Thomas Zidian, CEO, 330-743-3565

Belcampo Meat Co., Anya Fernald, CEO,415-448-5810

Birkenstock Widening Ban on Amazon Marketplace Orders

Birkenstock is taking its counterfeit goods battle with Amazon Marketplace retailers to Europe. The shoemaker, famous for its cork-soled sandals, is widening a ban of orders from Amazon Marketplace to Europe beginning Jan. 1, after having first implemented it in the U.S. last January. Birkenstock said it had lodged several complaints with Amazon alleging the sales of counterfeit goods on the Marketplace that violated its trademarks and misled consumers about the products’ origin. Despite a “series of violations” of trademark and other laws, Amazon has “failed to prevent them on its own accord,” Birkenstock said.

Amazon said in an email statement that it bars the sale of “fraudulent products” and removes those that violate its policies “as soon as we become aware of them” and takes “appropriate action” against the seller. Birkenstock footwear was for sale on Amazon’s main site on Wednesday. The crackdown on Amazon Marketplace comes as Birkenstock opens its own brick and mortar locations. It launched its first company-owned store in London in November and has a pop-up store being run at Barneys in New York through Dec. 24. It also had “Birkenstock Box” pop-up locations in Milan and Berlin last summer.

Contact:

Birkenstock USA, David Kahan, CEO,415-884-3200

Harlem Globetrotters – and Washington Generals — Return to Licensing

The Harlem Globetrotters have gotten back into the licensing game. Having recently signed Rasta Imposta to develop costumes, the team has landed six licensees, marking one of its biggest pushes in the category since being acquired by Herschend Family Entertainment in 2013. Rasta Imposta, which last fielded Globetrotters products several years ago, will ship men’s, women’s and children’s costume uniforms in 2018 along with warm-up suits. There also will be an afro wig branded with Globetrotter Moose Weekes that will be sold separately. Rasta considered packaging the wig with the uniform, but Globetrotters owner Herschend Family Entertainment Corp. felt the combination would be “promoting one player rather than promoting the brand,” so the idea was scrapped, says Rasta’s Gary Schneider.

The deal with Rasta is the most recent one struck by agent Licensing Street, which include The Dunk Collection (laundry basket); Suited Brands (athleisure apparel); Fashion UK (fashion apparel) and Blackstone Designs (apparel) and Simon & Schuster (children’s books), which is releasing a book this month. Meanwhile, a program is being readied for the marks of the Globetrotters’ longtime foils, the Washington Generals, says Licensing Street’s J.J. Ahearn. Herschend acquired the Generals earlier this year.

Contact:

The Licensing Street, JJ Ahearn, Managing Dir., 212-359-9571, jj@licensingstreet.com

Rasta Imposta. Gary Schneider, General Mgr. Licensing,856-939-9599, gary@rastaimposta.com

Harlem Globetrotters, Monica Neal, EVP Brand Marketing and Partnerships, 678-497-1900

Utz Completes Acquisition of Inventure

Utz Quality Foods completed its $165 million acquisition of Inventure, whose business includes licensed brands such as TGI Friday, Nathan’s Famous and Vidalia. The license with Nathan’s for  crinkle cut fries runs through 2031, while the agreement with TGI Friday potato skin-flavored potato chips expires in Dec. 2019. The pact with Vidalia for onion-flavored potato chips also ends in 2019. Inventure’s snack food business posted a 6% decline in annual revenue to $108.4 million in the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2016.

Contact:

Utz Quality Foods, Kevin Brick, VP Marketing, 717-637-1759, kbrick@utzsnacks.com

Executives:

Changes at National Basketball Players Inc.: Brian Lee, ex-Authentic Brands Group, named Vice President of Player Marketing; Inky Son, ex-Major League Baseball Players Association, appointed Vice President of Licensing; Aisha Ali, ex-Def Jam Recordings, joins as Brand and Growth Manager for international markets… Jasen Wright, ex-Authentic Brands Group, named VP of Brand Management at Beanstalk… Lindsay Martinez, VP of North American Product Management at Peanuts Worldwide, shifts to VP of Hardlines and Partnerships… Breyer Horses changes:Rick Rekedal, ex-DreamWorks Animation, named Executive VP of Brand and Business Development; Rhion Magee, ex-Twentieth Century Fox, appointed VP Creative… David Makuen, formerly SVP Marketing, promoted to EVP Marketing and Strategy at retailer Five Below.Karl Mawhinney, ex-Harlem Globetrotters, named VP Partnerships at Innovative Partnerships Group…Matthew Shiels, ex-Reed Smith law firm, appointed Director of Business and Legal Affairs at Fred Rogers Co., new position… Joshua Kanter, ex-Viking Cruises, named EVP of Marketing at PetSmart….Thomas Ferguson moves from Director to VP Licensing Partnerships at Endemol Shine North America .

Contacts:

Beanstalk, Jasen Wright, VP Brand Management, 212-421-6060, jasen.wright@beanstalk.com

Breyer Horses, Rick Rekedal, EVP Business and Brand Development, 973-633-5090

Five Below, David Makuen, EVP Marketing and Strategy, 215-546-7909

Fred Rogers Co., Matthew Shiels, Business and Legal Affairs Dir., 412-622-1300, sheils@fredrogers.com

National Basketball Players Inc.,  Brian Lee, VP Player Marketing, brian.lee@nbpa.com; Inky Son, VP Licensing, inky.son@nbpa.com; Aisha Ali, Brand and Growth Mgr. International, aiha.ali@nbpa.com, 212-655-0880

Agencies

Brandgenuity is representing MGM’s The Handmaid’s Tale for licensing as the Hulu series readies a 13-episode second season for April 2018. Among new licensees are Hot Topic (cosplay bonnet and cape); Isaac Morris (apparel) and Sellers Publishing (calendars)… Enpop is representing the animated YouTube series “Simon’s Cat” in South Korea as Endemol Shine seeks to expand the brand for licensing into Asia for the first time.Enpop will target apparel and accessories, toys and beauty products for licensing. The agency also will manage and launch Simon’s Cat social media platforms in South Korea… M-Zone is representing the Frank Sinatra Estate with plans for bringing the late singer’s brand into furniture…. IMG is handling licensing for Hearst’s Esquire magazine in North America; it has handled Esquire, Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar in international markets since 2013. IMG took over licensing for Cosmopolitan in the North America in 2015, and Harper’s remains that lone publication of the three that it doesn’t represent here.

Contacts:

Brandgenuity, Andrew Topkins, Partner, 212-925-0730andy@brandgenuity.com

M-Zone, Jeff FRadin, Managing Dir., 661-993-9005, jeff@m-zone.com

Camp MasterChef Weighing Expansion to West Coast in 2019

MasterChef summer camps will seek to expand to the West Coast in 2019 following the debut of the first two North American locations next year, Endemol Shine North America’s Tamaya Petteway told us. Licensee Campus Cerdanya will open culinary camps in June at The Kent School in Kent, CT and the Rabun-Gap Nacoochee School in Rabun-Gap, GA. aimed at teaching 8-16 year-olds cooking skills as well as outdoor sports and other activities. The camps carry at $1,280 weekly fee and have capacity for 300 at Kent and 200 at Rabun-Gap, says Petteway. The U.S. camps build on the five MasterChef locations Campus Cerdanya has opened in Spain since 2014 that have so far had 10,000 students go through its classes.

Contacts:

Endemol Shine North America, Tamaya Petteway, SVP Brand Licensing and Partnerships, 747-529 8147, tamaya.petteway@endemolshine.us

Campus Cerdanya, Sandro Lucarini, CEO +34 972 88 35,

Charming Charlie Struggled with Shrinking Inventory Since July

Fashion accessories chain Charming Charlie is closing 100 stores, having struggled with inventory since vendors tightened terms last summer, the company said in documents accompanying bankruptcy filing earlier this week.

Top creditors include Chinese apparel supplier R.Z.X. International ($2.2 million) and children’s clothing designer B.R.E. Industries ($1.7 million) as well as accessories supplier Berkshire Fashions ($974,541).

Charming Charlie will have 274 stores following the restructuring, including 16 franchised locations in the Middle East (14) and Philippines (2). It also is closing its Los Angeles, CA office and consolidating operations at its Houston, TX headquarters. Among the stores closing is a 16,000-sq.-ft. foot flagship location in New York that opened in 2015. The chain has secured $35 million debtor-in-possession senior secured credit and a $60 million term loan. Charming Charlie’s had annual sales of about $400 million.

Contact:

Charming Charlie, Robert Adamek, Chief Financial Officer, 713-579-1936

Her Universe Launches Marvel, Star Wars Collections in Disney Stores, Web Site

Her Universe launches Star Wars- and Marvel-inspired women’s apparel on Disney’s newly revamped e-commerce site and will move to its stores Dec. 15, Her Universe said. The shopdisney.com site was revamped earlier this fall as the company doubled the amount of merchandise it carries online with a sharpened focus on some adult brands including Coach, Ethan Allen furniture and David Lerner woman’s clothing. The Her Universe line includes dresses, jackets, sweaters, skirts and tops. In addition to Star Wars and Marvel apparel, shopdisney.com also has Her Universe’s Haunted Mansion and Alice in Wonderland women’s apparel that also are part of the Dress Shop collection that Her Universe designs for Disney parks.

Contacts:

Disney, Josh Silverman, EVP Global Licensing, 818-544-0041 josh.silverman@disney.com

Her Universe, Ashley Eckstein, CEO, 310-497-0715, aeckstein@heruniverse.com

Apple Wins Trademark Case Against Xiaomi

The European Union’s (EU) General Court upheld Apple’s bid to block Chinese smartphone supplier Xiaomi from registering its “Mi Pad” tablet PC as an EU trademark. The court ruled that Xiaomi’s selling Mi Pad in Europe would likely confuse consumers because of the brand’s similarity to Apple’s I-Pad. Xiaomi’s addition of an “m” to Mi-Pad didn’t offset the “high degree” of similarity to the i-Pad mark, the court said. While Xiaomi contended that the trademarks were not “sufficiently similar” to confuse consumers, the court countered that because “the common element ‘pad’ will be noticed visually and pronounced in each of the marks at issue, it will have an impact on the overall impression” that the brands are one in the same. Xiaomi applied for the trademark in April 2014 with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, which in 2016 upheld Apple’s complaint seeking to bar the Mi Pad brand from being trademarked.

Contact:

Apple, BJ Watrous, VP and Chief IP Counsel, 408-996-1010

Funko Acquires Animation Studio

Funko acquired A Large Evil Corp., renaming it Funko Animation Studios in a bid to expand its business from a base in collectibles. Funko has been producing short-form animated product videos with UK-based Large Evil since 2014, including several tied to Marvel properties. Funko will retain Large Evil’s co-founders, Guy Thomson and Seth Watkins, as general managers of the new division. The new studio will continue producing product videos and develop original content. “This will allow us to better create content to support and promote our brand and products globally,” Funko CEO Brian Mariotti said in a statement.

Contact:

Funko, Lauren Winarski, Licensing and Brand Mgr., 425-783-3616, lauren@funko.com