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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 14, 2006 Paul Frank Sunich, in front of the L.A. store that bears his name, provided the designs for Paul Frank Industries. (Los Angeles Times) Monkey business Paul Frank Industries, famous for its 'cheeky monkey' design, weathers a storm By Leslie Earnest Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES — For the first time since he was fired in November, designer Paul Frank Sunich walked into the Los Angeles store bearing his name and took stock. The co-founder of Paul Frank Industries Inc. touched T-shirts decorated with whimsical characters he created — including Julius, the cheeky monkey, and Clancy, the world's smallest giraffe. He pointed out a clock he had made by hand and a purse stitched from vinyl upholstery that he had selected from a pickup truck. A look of delight, and something close to wonder, brushed over his face. "See the grain?" he asked, fingers glancing over the striated pattern. "That was one of the last designs I worked on." The slogan above the sunglass case seemed to mock Sunich's situation, the placid scene on Third Street contrasting with his falling-out with his former partners: Advertisement "Paul Frank is your friend." Much has gone sour since Sunich, 38, worked on the wares on display. A battle is under way between the artist and the company he began 11 years ago, selling monkey-faced wallets from a newsstand in Huntington Beach. Last month Sunich filed two lawsuits against the Costa Mesa company. As attorneys on both sides have sharpened their pencils, the questions that arise are as quirky as a company that traces its origins to a child's sock puppet: Might Sunich force the sale of a business that raked in $40 million in sales last year? Must he settle for the $611,378.35 the company is offering for his nearly one-third stake? Will he be barred from using his own name in future business ventures? Can he keep designing if it means competing with Paul Frank Industries? And who will get custody of Julius, the monkey? As far as some retailers and young shoppers are concerned, the primate is the key character mired in this mess. "It still is about that darn monkey," said Carol Nielsen,a buyer for the Hermosa Beach-based Becker Surf & Sport chain. "That's what sells." Sunich's former partners, Ryan Heuser and John Oswald, declined to comment on their dispute with the artist beyond a written statement: "The company has treated Mr. Sunich very fairly and continues to do so. We hope that Mr. Sunich will come to realize this." Preparing for battle Sunich has enlisted high-powered help in the form of Daniel Field, a talent manager from entertainment agency the Firm, and public relations firm Sitrick & Co. "He was in a position where he had to have help," said Field, who mostly manages rock bands such as Weezer and Audioslave. Like many creative types, Sunich is less skilled in business than in his art, Field said, adding that he has known his friend and client for six years. "Paul doesn't want to have these PR guys; he doesn't want to have a litigator," Field said. Field said his main role was to protect Sunich and to help him realize goals such as creating projects involving animation, including television shows or movies. And Field can imagine Julius as the star of a future production. "Paul owns the copyright on Julius so, yes, I think there's a great possibility that he could wind up with the monkey," Field said. Sunich says Julius is his — and he wants to protect him. "I'm concerned about the integrity of that character — and all my characters, frankly," said Sunich, who first sketched Julius in an art class in 1995, inspired by a sock puppet made by his grandmother (and named, in part, after a favorite childhood treat, an Orange Julius drink). "I would like more control of how he is represented." To some girls, the names of the monkey and its maker are interchangeable. Asked about Julius, they will respond: "Oh, you mean Paul Frank?" "Oh, I love Paul Frank," said Kiara Walker, 13, at the Grove shopping center in L.A.'s Fairfax District recently. She has the robe and the pajamas and the T-shirts and the jacket and the slippers, Kiara said. "Oh, yeah. And the blanket." But whose name is it? The company, which owns the Paul Frank trademark, had won a temporary restraining order to keep the artist from using the name Paul Frank Design on a Web site, but an Orange County judge ruled late Friday that there was no justification for granting the preliminary injunction because the company did not show that Sunich had used the name to sell goods or design services. Sunich, at a restaurant down the street from the Third Street store, seems genuinely perplexed at the strangeness of his situation, especially the question of his name. "I mean, I'm Paul Frank," he said, as if making an obvious point. "I don't want to make up another name." Frank launched the business from his parents' home in 1995, sewing monkey patches onto wallets. Heuser, who was skilled at marketing, came aboard that year. Oswald, providing business expertise, joined two years later, according to court records. Each came to own almost one-third of the company. Together, they built Paul Frank Industries Inc. into a business that expanded through the years beyond kitschy products with whimsical animal characters to include a diverse array of goods such as bomber jackets, backpacks and bicycles. The company operates 14 Paul Frank shops, including locations in London, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Seoul, and its products are sold in more than 1,800 stores worldwide. Although his creativity provided fuel for the enterprise, Sunich might never have gone so far without partners who were astute at business to steer the effort, some say. "That's what all those artists lack, is the business sense," said Nielsen, the buyer from Becker. "I think there has to be a businessperson and an art person, and that's the marriage. ... That's the golden scenario." Still, Sunich was no chump when it came to his products, said Barbara Fields, a trend forecaster who visited his trade show booth when the company was quite young. "He's a very smart guy; he's smarter than everyone thinks," she said. "He knew he had something" and was very particular about whom he would sell to. "He didn't even like the word 'department stores,' " she said. He "really didn't want to sell to just anyone." Sunich doesn't claim that business is his strong suit. But even as a designer, he says, he felt increasingly disrespected and marginalized through the years. In one of the more bruising incidents, Sunich alleges, he returned from his honeymoon in July to find that his artwork and personal effects had been moved so his office could be turned into a marketing department. "My 10 years of work was outside in the hallway where everybody could walk by it and walk around it," he said. "I really think that somehow they thought they could do that kind of stuff and get away with it." On the day that he was fired, Sunich said, he and fellow board members gathered on the telephone to discuss the matter. His was the lone dissenting vote, he said. "I voted no," he said. "I wasn't going to vote to fire myself." Times staff writer Tanya Caldwell contributed to this report. a Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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