James R. Sims III

Partner

James R. Sims III is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Intellectual Property Practice. His practice focuses on copyright, trademark, licensing, and franchising issues for clients in the financial services, pharmaceutical and life science, high-technology, food, education, consumer products, luxury resort lodging, and publishing industries. Mr. Sims works with clients to protect, exploit, and enforce their copyrights and trademarks domestically and internationally. He has drafted and negotiated numerous copyright and trademark licenses, franchise agreements, and distribution agreements, and counsels clients on a wide range of license and franchise issues. Mr. Sims often helps clients structure licensing and distribution systems to avoid triggering application of franchise regulation. He also handles the substantive and contractual issues that arise in the context of financing transactions where intellectual property rights serve as collateral, as well as the myriad copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property issues present in merger and acquisition transactions.

Mr. Sims has represented clients in administrative litigation before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (including having represented the American Bar Association's Intellectual Property Law Section) and in litigation regarding copyright, trademark, and franchise issues in federal district court. While a partner at Morgan Lewis, he also served as acting Chief Trademark Counsel for a Fortune 250 consumer products company for several months, counseling on a wide range of trademark, copyright, and advertising matters.

Mr. Sims has written articles on intellectual property and franchising topics for The National Law Journal, The Licensing Journal, The Corporate Lawyer, Licensing Economics Review, Franchise Law Journal, American Bar Association (ABA) CLE program materials and reports, and Morgan Lewis's prior Intellectual Property Handbook and other publications. He frequently speaks on intellectual property and franchise issues, most recently addressing the copyright, trade secret and other intellectual property issues that arise in franchise systems at the 2010 annual ABA Forum on Franchising meeting. He also served as co-editor of the ABA's comprehensive IP publication, The Intellectual Property Handbook: A Practical Guide for Franchise, Business and IP Counsel.

For a number of years Mr. Sims has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Hospice Foundation, a Washington, D.C. based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports programs that serve the needs of terminally ill and grieving individuals of all ages; he currently also serves as its treasurer.

Mr. Sims is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania.