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.