The book is born of a desire to make fashion law in Europe as easily accessible and understood as it is Stateside. This site continues that tradition and opens up the discussion to all of you, dear readers.
Europe is the home to three out of four of the world’s major fashion weeks. Key global fashion movements begin in Paris, Milan and London and their influence is felt around the world. It is high time for a book which looks at European legal issues in more detail.
Who are you?
Rosie Burbidge is the author and editor of the book and the driving force behind this site.
She's an intellectual property lawyer who has worked for (& against) many of the big European brand names. Her focus is on helping brands who encounter copyright, designs, trade mark and breach of confidence issues both in the UK & across Europe.
For anyone doing business in Europe, a lack of awareness of issues such as design protection, use of customer data and e-commerce can harm reputations and lead to expensive and distracting disputes.
The aim of the book is to get key information to the fashion front line, and ultimately make businesses simpler, easier to run and save lots of time and money.
The team
Rosie Burbidge is an English intellectual property lawyer. She has over ten years of experience working for international and London law firms including several months at eBay and Richemont. Whilst Rosie has had a lot of experience of other European jurisdictions (France, Germany, Italy and Belgium in particular) she did not do it alone.
Her excellent team of contributors included:
The wonderful Charlotte Gerrish (a bi-lingual and dual qualified expert in French commercial law). She is the Founder of Gerrish Legal and is the go-to person with any French legal issues you may face
The excellent Gordon Drakes, a Partner at FieldFisher in London, shared his knowledge and experience of agency and distribution agreements and franchising
Frederic Lejeune, Founder of Belgium law firm Lejeune.legal brought his expertise of Belgium law particularly in relation to the crucial areas of litigation and contracts
The uber fashionable Chiara Gaido, an Italian lawyer with knowledge of everything from advertising to tax law
Michal Stein an English employment law specialist gave her practical insights into the many employment law issues which can arise both in the UK and at a pan-European level
Alexandra Brenner provided the essential Swiss dimension. Switzerland, is clearly part of Europe and is home to many luxury brands but it falls outside the European Union and consequently has some unique issues and approaches. Alexandra disentangles them with great finesse
Wioletta Kulińska is a fabulous Polish lawyer with expertise of intellectual property and commercial issues including data protection law. Poland is an important European market which is often overlooked
French employment law is notoriously complicated but with Isabelle Pons' help, many of the underlying mysteries have been resolved
Germany is obviously a very important European market. Whilst it is not always considered in a fashion context, the sheer number of consumers means that it is impossible to overlook. It also has some very specific issues which can become major traps for the unwary. Hester Beuvers' expertise was essential in navigating these challenging waters
Finally, starting and buying or selling a company are on the agenda for all fashion businesses at one stage in their life cycle. Kate Partridge's expertise was very helpful in making sure that nothing major was missed
We are immensely grateful to all of them for their time and dedication.
The book hit the physical and digital shelves in Feb 2019 - just in time for fashion week!
In the meantime, keep up with the latest fashion law issues via this website as well as Twitter @eurofashionlaw and Instagram @europeanfashionlaw
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