The IP Litigation team, in collaboration with Italian firm LCA Studio Legale, secured a win in the Second Circuit for Italian fashion house Valentino SpA over New York textile company Mrinalini Inc. Valentino previously prevailed in an arbitration it had instituted in the Chamber of Arbitration of Milan seeking a declaratory judgment rejecting Mrinalini’s claims of breach of contract, copyright infringement, and trade secret misappropriation. Represented by Goodwin, Valentino moved under the New York Convention to confirm the arbitral award in the Southern District of New York. The district court granted the petition and Mrinalini appealed. The Second Circuit (Chief Judge Livingston and Judges Nardini and Menashi) affirmed.
The Court first rejected Mrinalini’s challenge under Article V of the New York Convention, declining Mrinalini’s request to defer confirmation of the award until the resolution of Mrinalini’s appeal of the arbitration in Italy. The Court separately rejected Mrinalini’s challenge to the arbitrator’s jurisdiction, concluding that the parties’ agreement delegated arbitrability to the arbitrator, and further that the arbitrator’s interpretation of the award satisfied the New York Convention’s deferential standard of review.
The Goodwin team was led by Alexandra D. Valenti, Naomi Birbach, Jenevieve Nutovits, Jordan Bock, and Aaron Thompson.