Food Industry

K&L Gates lawyers represent the industry in start-up, seed, friends and family rounds, angel investors, venture, private equity, mezzanine, IPO, and growth capital; contacts at all stages for financing opportunities; significant experience from start up to IPO and follow-on, U.S. and international offerings. We have advised entrepreneurs, investors, and established businesses in developing their ventures and new markets.

We advise clients on the requirements of federal and state agencies, including regulation of food ingredients, labeling, advertising, food safety and security, animal health, and products of new technologies such as nanotechnology and advance processing techniques. Our areas of experience also include food packaging; food contact notifications and secondary direct food additives; organic/natural products and labeling; nutritional, structure/function, and health claims; transgenic crops; and the safety evaluation of food ingredients.

 

We regularly represent clients before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); the Federal Trade Commission (FTC); and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). 

 

Our team frequently assists clients with advocacy, participation in rulemaking, and other public proceedings.  We prepare and represent clients in front of congressional inquiries and implement legislative solutions for clients.

 

Our EU regulatory food practice offers strategic legal advice to a broad array of clients in the food industry. We have experience in a wide variety of areas including EU regulatory law and policy (free movement of goods, customs classifications, quotas), food labeling and advertising issues (health and nutrition claims, geographical indications and designations of origin), product registration (novel foods, food supplements, food for special medical purposes, cosmetics, etc.), and product liability (withdrawals, recalls), among others, with particular focus on innovative foods and drinks.

For clients that are seeking to expand their products into the EU, we help to navigate them through all aspects of the EU regulatory process. With more than 1,500 nutritional supplements and functional foods registered in the EU countries during the last eight years, we provide global clients with legal advice, creative solutions, and specific strategies for products being imported or marketed into the EU.

We have advised clients on distribution agreements, policies, UCC terms, trademark and trademark usage, advertising, e-commerce privacy policies, online postings, sales terms, and territorial issues. We also advise clients on the use of new technologies for marketing, such as Facebook and Twitter.

We regularly advise clients on their product labeling, including structure/function, health and nutritional claims being made on product labels, labeling, and other promotional literature.

Advertising and intellectual property are top of mind with food providers and inventors. K&L Gates lawyers serve as legal counsel in every aspect of advertising and intellectual property within the food industry – from advertising review and compliance, advocacy before the FTC and the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, and Lanham Act representation including false advertising litigation, to procurement, management, and litigation regarding patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, and licensing. K&L Gates can advise you throughout the creative process of a food product’s lifespan, from research through post-production and media.

Our corporate team has specialized industry knowledge representing both buyers and sellers of food-related businesses – teaming with our practices equally versed in the industry such as FDA, IP, employment, and litigation – to seamlessly and efficiently close a transaction. We regularly handle general corporate, securities, mergers and acquisitions, manufacturing and supply agreements, distribution agreements, franchising documents, and joint venture matters for dozens of industry clients, public and private.

In the global marketplace, where ingredients, raw materials, and animals cross borders, significant issues arise around food security, quality controls, food defense, and bioterrorism. Contaminants such as melamine, salmonella, listeria, and E.coli are the subject of increasing focus. Concerns surrounding allergens and their proper labeling are posing a growing challenge on the global stage. Such risks require companies to be more conscientious about both the safety and the proper labeling of all of the products they market. Our team has extensive experience with brand protection during a food safety outbreak, as well as relationships with several global public relations firms to assist our clients. We also have advised our clients on the availability of insurance against food risks and have assisted our clients in obtaining insurance for the cost of product recalls.

Our lawyers conduct compliance audits and assist clients in responding to government enforcement activities. Our team has a strong track record responding to internal investigations, warning letters, inspectional observations, as well as criminal investigations by FDA, FTC, and DEA.

Members of our international trade practice routinely advise and represent clients in every facet of the food industry in connection with conventional customs issues, such as tariff classification, country of origin, country of origin marking, as well as the application of free trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement; preferential programs such as the Generalized System of Preferences; quantitative restrictions such as tariff rate quotas; and trade remedy actions, such as antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings. In addition, K&L Gates’ international trade lawyers counsel clients in connection with inspections, detentions, and seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection of merchandise regulated by the FDA and USDA and counsel importers with respect to the applicability of, and compliance with, import permitting requirements administered by such agencies. Finally, we assist clients interested in exporting food products from the United States, including the restrictions on and/or protocols for conducting trade with certain countries, persons, and/or end uses embargoed by the United States.

K&L Gates lawyers have extensive experience in all types of dispute resolution, including state and federal court litigation, domestic and international arbitrations, and mediations and administrative proceedings. We have handled high profile false advertising litigation in the federal courts and before the NAD, consumer class actions, and breach of contract cases. We have also been engaged to represent clients in disputes with their contractors or suppliers, including disputes about which entity or entities will bear responsibility if a government investigation requires a recall or market withdrawal of a food product. We typically team our food industry lawyers with our litigators who are located in our offices throughout the United States and around the world, often giving K&L Gates the opportunity to bring cost effective representation on our clients' behalf by lawyers located relatively close to the forum of the dispute.