By DAVID BERTOLA
Business First

Companies that license their brands should ensure that, ultimately, the consumer products manufactured with their names on them are safe and of the highest quality and that labor laws are adhered to when being made.

But traditionally, there had been few guidelines or best practices to refer to when managing licensing processes. That was until one Buffalo-based marketer created a group for licensors at small and large companies alike to share information and shepherd others through the process.

Kimberly Billoni had been working at Bureau Veritas, a consumer product quality-assurance lab, when she noticed a trend.

"Across the board, whether it was Coca-Cola or Disney or Fisher-Price, none of the licensing programs came together, and there wasn't an organization that encouraged the dialogue of best practices among brand owners," she said.

So in 2004 she started SPLiCE, an acronym for Society of Product Licensors Committed to Excellence. It is a community of licensors nationwide who discuss and share best practices for protecting and promoting the integrity of a company's brand.

SPLiCE's first officers included Sheri Pfneisel, secretary, an Anheuser-Busch brand manager; Lorrie Turner, treasurer, then an attorney at Rich Products Corp.; and Rhonda Urbik, vice president, a director of McDonald's Corp. Billoni was president but has had her title changed to chief executive.

Learning from others

"There is no one specific process or procedure to follow for licensing brands," Billoni said.

Today, the SPLiCE community is comprised of about 30 companies in various industries and consumer products that have helped define such guidelines.

"While talking with people in your industry can be helpful, there is always something to learn from those in other industries," said Turner, who in 2008 joined New Era Cap Co. Inc., where she is director of legal.

"As licensors, as brand owners, they speak to putting the processes in place as we hope to influence more education among small manufacturers," said Billoni, adding that within SPLiCE alone, more than 4,000 licensees are doing business with larger brands representing more than $30 billion in consumer products.

"In this community, it makes it easier to do business with licensees, who don't need to learn one process for Caterpillar, then another for Whirlpool," she said.

Educational sessions address many areas

SPLiCE has a 501(c)(6) designation, defined by the Internal Revenue Service as a business league whose "activities must be devoted to improving business conditions" and "their efforts at promoting the common economic interests of all commercial enterprises in a trade or community."

To accomplish the latter, SPLiCE hosts educational sessions attended by companies from all over the United States They address topics such as product safety, dealing with overseas factories, social compliance issues, brand protection, work conditions at manufacturing sites, child labor and anti-counterfeiting programs.

"Once you get closer to the licensing industry, you see there is a need to assist licensors," said Bruce Hoover, a partner at Goldberg Segalla LLP who helped with the legal formation of SPLiCE.

Information among members, Billoni said, is always focused on licensing processes and often shared using case studies. She said smaller companies, which may not have the resources of a larger company, wishing to act as licensors can turn to SPLiCE for best practices.

Smaller companies, Hoover said, may not have the resources to oversee product quality and create quality procedures.

"SPLiCE helps small organizations oversee and/or develop protocols, and for large organizations maybe fill in some gaps that they weren't aware of," he said.