Katten

Intellectual Property

From Paris runways to retail outlets across the US, Karen Artz Ash protects the intellectual property of major names in fashion. She provides comprehensive IP counsel to designers and clothing manufacturers as well as clients in other industries in which IP assets figure prominently. The institutional memory that she and her team have established with long-time clients and within the fashion industry as a whole allow her to provide practical and deeply informed advice across a wide range of issues.

Karen has a talent for helping clients make strategic decisions about IP assets that support their overall business goals. That includes, but goes beyond, basic issues like selecting, defending and enforcing IP rights. Karen often assists with corporate structuring issues, often rooted in tax analysis, for entities with IP assets that represent a large portion of their overall value. She also strategizes on re-brandings, negotiates commercial agreements involving IP rights and helps clients to incorporate protections for their IP into their business operations.

With the many international relationships in the fashion industry, Karen has developed significant experience in cross-border issues. Her team is known for its creative approach to those matters. Karen brings a background in economics and finance to her practice, and gained experience as a clerk in New York bankruptcy court that continues to benefit clients that have either gone through reorganizations or acquired assets from third parties in bankruptcy.

She is a member of the New York State Bar Association’s sections on Trial Law, Intellectual Property and Alternative Dispute Resolutions, and a member of the American Bar Association’s sections on Patent, Trademark and Copyright Law and Trial Law. She is also a member of the United States International Trademark Association, the National Association of Mediators, the New York County Lawyers’ Association and the New York Women’s Bar. Ms. Ash is a member of the Anti-Defamation League, where she is on the Executive Committees of New York Regional Board and the Lawyers’ Committee. She is also a member of the Mediation/ADR Sub-Committee of the International Trademark Association (INTA). She performs pro bono work for the Central Park Conservancy, ADL, Sanctuary for Families and other New York charitable institutions, and is a member of the Board of Directors, Executive Committee and Planning Committee of Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS).

JD, New York Law School, magna cum laude, 1980; AB, Georgetown University, 1976