The Global Legal Post launches online luxury law comparative guide

The Global Legal Post today launches a comparative jurisdictional guide to the fast-moving world of luxury law.

The online resource, under the Law Over Borders brand, is jointly edited by Fabrizio Jacobacci, the senior founding partner of Turin-based Jacobacci Abril, and Alan Behr, chairman of the fashion and luxury practice at New York’s Phillips Nizer.

The guide provides answers and insight into laws impacting on brands in key jurisdictions around the world and is written by experts carefully selected by the editors for their knowledge of the luxury sector.

There are sections on trademark and copyright law; design; rights surrounding privacy, publicity and personal endorsement; product placement; and the protection of corporate image and reputation. Jurisdictions covered include Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan and Turkey.

The easy-to-use digital format allows readers to quickly assess the legal frameworks of different jurisdictions by comparing contributing authors’ answers to a series of questions carefully framed to cover they key legal issues.

‘In our society, luxury goods function as status symbols, they define class, social distinction, and even personal beliefs and values,’ writes Jacobacci in the Italy chapter. ‘Luxury companies utilise their trademarks as symbols to signal status and market their products or services. It is not a surprise, therefore, that trademarks have become their most valuable assets and no efforts are spared to constantly expand their scope of protection, often by testing the law in an attempt to stretch it to its furthest limits.’

One emerging trend tackled by the authors is influencer marketing. Behr and the co-author of the US chapter, Tod M. Melgar, chair of Phillips Nizer’s patent law practice group, highlight the prevalence of morals clauses in agreements with influencers that give a brand ‘the right to push the “eject” button immediately and without notice for any reason it deems appropriate for preserving its reputation’.

They explain: ‘In the current environment in the United States where the #MeToo movement has risen to have such a powerful public presence, and where the recently or habitually famous can be “cancelled” (the electronic-age equivalent of “shunning”), for making statements that are potentially dangerous to a brand – even if thoughtfully expressed or factually correct – luxury brands typically insist on morals clauses that give them broad leeway.’

The online guide will be regularly updated by its contributors, while a book featuring additional content will be launched at the market-leading Luxury Law Summit Europe, taking place in London on 20 June.