Trademarks and Other Intangibles, net

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Trademarks and Other Intangibles, net

2.  Trademarks and Other Intangibles, net

Trademarks and other intangibles, net consist of the following:

			December 31, 2011				December 31, 2010
	Estimated		Gross				Gross
	Lives in		Carrying		Accumulated		Carrying		Accumulated
(000's omitted)	Years		Amount		Amortization		Amount		Amortization
Indefinite life trademarks and copyrights		Indefinite	$	1,528,362	$	-	$	1,373,277	$	-
Definite life trademarks		10-15		19,603		6,623		19,579		5,169
Non-compete agreements		2-15		10,475		10,325		10,475		9,092
Licensing agreements		1-9		32,428		22,924		30,103		18,640
Domain names		5		570		570		570		553
			$	1,591,438	$	40,442	$	1,434,004	$	33,454

In April 2011, the Company completed a transaction in which Hardy Way acquired substantially all of the licensing rights to the Ed Hardy brands and trademarks from its licensee.  Also, as part of this transaction, the Company increased its ownership interest in Hardy Way from a 50% non-controlling interest to an 85% controlling interest.  In accordance with ASC Topic 810, as of April 2011 the assets and liabilities and results of operations of Hardy Way have been consolidated with the Company.  As a result of this transaction, the Company increased its indefinite life trademarks by $96.5 million and its licensing agreements by $1.0 million.  In October 2011, the Company completed the acquisition of the Sharper Image assets including trademark and other intellectual property rights. As a result of this transaction, the Company increased its indefinite life trademarks by $57.5 million and its license agreements by $1.3 million. See Note 3 for further explanation of the Hardy Way and Sharper Image transactions.

In June 2010, the Company completed a transaction in which it acquired an 80% controlling interest in Peanuts Worldwide, owner of the Peanuts portfolio of brands and related assets, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Icon Entertainment LLC.  As a result of this transaction, the Company increased its indefinite life trademarks by $153.0 million and its licensing agreements by $1.1 million.  See Note 3 for further explanation of this transaction.

Amortization expense for intangible assets for FY 2011, FY 2010 and FY 2009 was $7.0 million, $8.3 million and $7.3 million, respectively. The trademarks of Candie’s, Bongo, Joe Boxer, Rampage, Mudd, London Fog, Mossimo, Ocean Pacific, Danskin, Rocawear, Cannon, Royal Velvet, Fieldcrest, Charisma, Starter, Waverly, Ecko, Zoo York, Peanuts, Ed Hardy and Sharper Image have been determined to have an indefinite useful life and accordingly, consistent with ASC Topic 350, no amortization has been recorded in the Company's consolidated income statements. Instead, each of these intangible assets are tested for impairment at least annually on an individual basis as separate single units of accounting, with any related impairment charge recorded to the statement of operations at the time of determining such impairment.  Similarly, consistent with ASC Topic 360, there was no impairment of the definite-lived trademarks.