Servicemarks Consultants: 7

William (Ned) McLeod, Esq., has been a party to many Licensing Arrangements as an attorney specializing in Intellectual Property in the Entertainment Industry (“IP”), both on the licensor and the licensee side of the table in different matters from hard media historical archives to blockchain based creations, and, as a non-attorney producer, both as owner  licensor and, alternately, as user / licensee.

As a result of his more than 40 years in the Entertainment Industry, Mr. McLeod has personally negotiated hundreds of licenses, and reviewed and evaluated hundreds more. His handling of licenses have covered a broad scope of venues and clientele, including The Rockefeller Center (NYC), the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and The Navy Pier (IL), the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History (TX, with 8 associated museums), Graceland (TN), Niagara Falls (NY), The Smithsonian, the Kennedy Space Center (FL), Port of Los Angeles (CA), National Harbor (DC), Leadership Conference of Women Religious (“Catholic Sisters,” MD), the Tupperware Center (FL), Gatorland (FL), the Orlando Ballet (FL), Bob Ross (painter), Cousteau family ventures, 7 years of the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade (live and televised), and others.    

Consulting Services -  Mr. McLeod has been most effective serving the long term needs of someone unfamiliar with the entertainment trade. He helps teams :

• Reach a level of confidence in designing their venture step by step, through option and decision tree outlines, developing from content creation over a span of five years or more and identifying the desired stages of achievement for the work.
• Take a book idea through publication, licensing to media and exhibition platforms, and attaching merchandise and educational products that build out sustainable and successful models of exploitation, with seats for sequels.
•  Tent-polling a major artistic creation (e.g., a painting, graphic/comic series, story, song, a Non-Fungible Token item, or a celebrity brand), and designing the alliances and partnerships necessary for funding and moving to concentric wheels of ancillary and subsidiary derived products, experiences, and performances - all leading to revenue sharing.

View Ned McLeod's Expert Witness Profile.

Sidney P. Blum, CPA, CFE, CPEA, CFF has 30 years of professional and testifying expert experience in the areas of Royalty Auditing, Forensic Accounting, Intellectual Property Economic Damages, and General Economic Damages. Mr. Blum was named California CPA of the Year (2017) and Certified Fraud Examiner of the Year (2012). He is a Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Professional Environmental Auditor, and Certified in Financial Forensics by the AICPA. Mr. Blum was a KPMG Partner. He specializes in breach of contract, lost revenues, patent infringement, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, lost pay, and wrongful termination.

As a world leading royalty auditor, Mr. Blum has extensive knowledge of the Georgia-Pacific factors and other major influences on reasonable royalty rates for intellectual property litigation. He led the national royalty audit practices for Big 4 firms Ernst & Young and KPMG and he also wrote the global methodologies for both firms. He is one of 5 members of the Board of Regents with the 80,000 member Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. 

Clients: Mr. Blum's clients have included Adobe, Amgen, Beats Electronics, DGA, Disney, Dolby, DTS, DKNY, Ed Hardy, General Electric, General Motors, IGT, IMG, Marvel, Mattel, McDonalds, Microsoft, MLB, WWE, UMB Bank, Steven Spielberg, Harley-Davidson, and the NFL.  Expert witness testimony on royalty audit standards and results. 

Industries:  Many industries such as medical devices, music, toys, energy, film, consumer products, electronics, apparel, automotive, manufacturing and biotech.

Consulting Services:

Desk Audits and Field Audits Forensic Accounting and Investigative Audits Royalty Reporting / System Audits

Evaluation of License Agreements Royalty Compliance and Monitoring Programs Royalty Compliance / Monitoring Program Reviews

Mr. Blum’s two books published by Oxford University Press and LexisNexis on financial terms in contracts are leading sources of valuable information for attorneys and contract negotiators. He has also made numerous presentations to law firms, professional groups, universities, and others regarding contract compliance and auditing.

View Sidney Blum's Expert Witness Profile.

Attorney, Antonio R. Sarabia II, has 30 years of experience in Consumer Licensing matters (revenue, standards, performance, and breaches), Trademarks, Copyrights, and issues occurring in the Apparel Industry. 

Background Experience - Mr. Sarabia is intimately familiar with the business problems and legal issues fashion companies may face. At the beginning of his apparel industry experience, Mr. Sarabia spent nine years as part of the senior management of Guess?, whose sales grew 400% during a single year. Over the course of his time there, the company transformed from a fad into a mainstay fashion company. Since leaving Guess?, Mr. Sarabia has advised various other apparel companies, from publicly-held companies to fast-growing companies like Earl Jean, to smaller start-up companies. .

Litigation Support - Mr. Sarabia is available to serve as an expert witness, whether through testifying, identifying important or relevant issues, or suggesting discovery in his areas of expertise. His services are available to attorneys for plaintiff and defendant.

Areas of Expertise:

• Licensing: revenue projections, forecasts, standards, performance, breach, selection of licensees, damages
• Intellectual Property: analysis, due diligence, investigations;
• Copyrights:  substantial similarity, originality
• Trademarks: secondary meaning, infringement, dilution, searches, investigations, due diligence, theft, trade dress, counterfeiting, rebuttal on damages
• Apparel Business: contracts, manufacturing (local, abroad), import, export, sales, distribution, apparel copyrights, substantial similarity of apparel lines, theft and protection of designs, rebuttal on damages
• Design Patents: defenses based on lack on originality, identify and analyze obviousness and prior art
• Attorney Malpractice: standards of practice for apparel business lawyers, intellectual property lawyers, and licensing lawyers

Nevium specializes in managing and increasing the value of intellectual property portfolios. You have your business plan; you have your marketing plan…Where is your IP plan? Quite surprisingly, most businesses don’t have an IP plan; nonetheless even know the total contents of their IP portfolio. At Nevium, we manage and monetize intellectual property and intangible assets. We believe these assets need to be identified, organized and managed in order to maximize value. 

Nevium specializes in valuing, managing, monetizing and providing expert testimony related to intellectual property. Nevium values IP for business transactions, tax/estate, joint venture negotiations, transfer pricing and bankruptcy. 

Nevium builds and manages intellectual asset management strategies for clients who want to monetize their IP. Mr. Bania and Mr. Buss are frequent lecturers on IP valuation and licensing issues and publish articles for numerous industry publications. Areas of expertise include music, apparel, publishing, film, food, automotive, sporting goods, furnishings, advertising, media, photography, retail and not-for-profit.

Consulting Services Include:

• IP Management - Nevium Identifies, organizes and values IP and IA
• IP Valuation - Nevium values brands, trademarks, copyrights, patents social media and Internet assets for M&A, estate, business transactions, tax and transfer pricing
• IP Monetization - Nevium assists with setting royalty rates, building licensing agreements and buying and selling IP

Doug Bania, CLP, Founding Principal, has over a decade of expertise in managing, valuing and monetizing intellectual property. Prior to founding Nevium, Mr. Bania managed 100s of projects related to brands, intellectual property and related intangible assets. He has assisted clients in intellectual property matters related to acquisitions, litigation, bankruptcy, tax, estate, family and marital disputes, and licensing. Mr. Bania delivers presentations and seminars on IP valuation, management, and damages issues for various business and legal entities across the United States.

San Diego Office 415 Laurel Street, Suite 341 San Diego, CA 92101 Telephone: 858-255-4361 Email: info@nevium.com

Los Angeles Office 9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450 Beverly Hills, CA 90210 Telephone: 310-975-3145 Email: info@nevium.com

View Nevium's Expert Witness Profile.

Eric F. Forister, PhD is an Economist with expertise in industrial organization, applied microeconomics, and applied econometrics. He has extensive experience in applying economic insights to understand firm and market behavior, analyzing large datasets using advanced econometric and statistical techniques, and designing and evaluating surveys. He has co-authored medical research papers and legal publications on class certification and market definition. As a consultant, Dr. Forister has addressed issues such as:

Market Definition Market Power Competition Market Pricing Merger Efficiencies Common Impact Materiality

Reliance Ascertainability Royalty Rates (including FRAND) Damages Sampling Survey Design Irreparable Harm

Dr. Forister has analyzed dozens of industries including consumer packaged goods, luxury goods, food products, medical services, biotechnology, legal services, fitness, clothing, entertainment, real estate, air and ground transportation, telecommunications, television, electronics, heavy industry, advertising, restaurants, automobiles, gasoline, payment processing, and illicit markets.

Education/Training:

• PhD in Business Administration (Field: Economics), Stanford Graduate School of Business
• BS in Mathematics / Economics, University of California at Los Angeles, magna cum laude

View Dr. Forister's Expert Witness Profile.

Dr. Larry Chiagouris has a rare combination serving as a senior Fortune 500 executive and as an accomplished academician. He has provided expert testimony and written opinions on damages, marketing, advertising, intellectual property issues (including the use of survey research) for plaintiffs & defendants at major national & local firms.

Dr. Chiagouris  brings extensive experience as a Senior Marketing, Branding and Research Executive responsible for directing major assignments for companies such as AT&T, Campbell Soup, Kraft, Miller Brewing, Peugeot, Pfizer, Prudential and Visa. He has a Ph.D. in Marketing, is Past Chairman, Advertising Research Foundation and Former Director of the American Marketing Association.

Experience Summary:

• Experience evenly divided between plaintiff and defendant engagements over 25 cases
• Several cases include elements of intellectual property issues
• Majority of cases involve elements of consumer behavior or survey research
• Majority of cases involve elements of advertising related strategies and tactics
• Majority of cases involve elements of Internet related tactics
• Majority of cases involve written opinions and depositions
• Written and oral testimony in several Federal District Court jurisdictions
• Engaged by both large multinational law firms and small boutique firms
• Class action cases evenly divided between plaintiffs and defendants
• Selected by Agency Magazine as one of 10 best and brightest researchers.

Michael Nranian, JD, MBA, MS has over 30 years experience focusing in Product Development, Intellectual Property, Patent Litigation, Legal and Technical Compliance, and Product Liability Litigation. He is a licensed attorney in Michigan, Texas, & the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. Nranian is a Six Sigma Black Belt, Professional Engineer, & Certified Project Management Professional. He has an in-depth background and education in Law, IP, Electrical, Chemical & Computer Engineering, & Business. He has testified extensively as an expert witness in depositions, hearings, and trials in state & federal courts.

Mr. Nranian conducts Product and Technology Analysis, Patentability & Prior Art Research,and provides Technology & Litigation Support for Intellectual Property. His litigation background includes patent infringement / non-infringement under literal infringement and the doctrine of equivalents, patent validity / invalidity, prior art, & file-wrapper estoppel, for both ITC and Federal cases, including Inter Partes reviews. He conducts analysis of patents and products, prepares claim charts, & expert witness reports. This includes testimony and document preparation for cases before state, and federal court jurisdictions, and the International Trade Commission and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Mr. Nranian is thoroughly familiar with all 101, 102, 103, 112, and other enablement and prior art arguments. His experience includes Technology Standards Boards and Licensing Authorities, Antitrust / DOJ, Technology Development and Transfer, Patents, Trademarks, Trade Secrets, and Copyrights, Licensing, Unfair Competition/Trade, False/Deceptive Advertising, & Lanham Act Actions, & Class Actions.

His Product Liability Expert Witness litigation background includes all types of Safety Systems, Electrical Systems, Fires, Accident Reconstruction, and Evaluation of Alternative Designs for Automotive, Medical and other industries. He has over 29 years of experience in Automotive Safety Systems, Sensors, Seatbelts, Airbags / Curtains, Seats, Diagnostic Systems, Crash Recorders, Crash Pulse Analysis, System Diagnostic, Fault Codes, Structure (including roof-crush and door) and front, side & roll-over systems (including sensing and algorithm development) for domestic and international corporations. He is thoroughly familiar with all regulatory (including FMVSS), and corporate due-care requirements, & preemption arguments, occupant kinematics, & injury causation.