The Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Rose has a great story today on luxury hotels and how they’ve created their own branded personal care items in order to lure discerning customers. By “discerning customers,” we mean thieves.

Rose explains that the W chain of hotels uses Bliss soaps, shampoos, and lotions to lure customers. She explores the habits of other hotel chains including Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Ritz Carlton, and Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group. Many of the agreements involve licensing between hotel beauty product suppliers and luxury brands.

UK Judge Rules Against Lucasfilm

The designer of the original Storm Trooper helmets for the Star Wars franchise has won a legal battle in the United Kingdom that will allow him to continue selling the helmets there, BBC news reports.

Andrew Ainsworth of London is not allowed to sell the helmets in the U.S. due to American copyright law, but British Supreme Court judges accepted Ainsworth’s argument that the helmets were not artistic works but functional ones, and therefore not subject to the same copyright protection as works of art. The court ruled that three-dimensional creations are not considered sculptures, limiting their copyright protection in the United Kingdom to 15 years.

Retail Sales Up, But Profits, Not So Much

Reuters reports that U.S. retailers will report a nearly 3 percent increase in sales from last year, but that an increase in sales of discount merchandise has kept margins razor-thin.

The article posits that the large number of sales is designed to clear store shelves before the back-to-school season—but it is unclear whether BTS items will command full price.

As we’ve written before, licensed goods should fare pretty well during BTS season, regardless of overall sales numbers.

—Bryan Joiner

CNNMoney.com’s Parija Kavilanz wrote a story on Angry Birds back to school items, calling it the hot new trend. And: of course it is! The introduction of Angry Birds licensed merchandise dovetails perfectly with back to school. (Angry Birds back to school merchandise is available to preorder.) According to the story, sales of Angry Birds-related goods have risen 500 percent in the past five months.

As we’ve written before, while back-to-school spending will likely ebb this year, licensed products are the natural exception. Licensing is a stable industry because it has the tendency to break the curve when consumers are pinching their pennies. The entire children’s television industry is built upon this foundation, and its dominance is unquestioned as a supplier of licensed product. Angry Birds, which we covered extensively in our spring issue, has fought its way into a fairly prestigious club. It’s a brand for people of all ages, the Super Mario Bros. of its time.

Will it have the staying power of Super Mario Bros.? Only time will tell. It’s one thing to reach the mountaintop, but it’s another thing to stay there. Survival is tough, and no one survives by accident. Angry Birds netted $42 million in March on the strength of the game’s performance—do they have a Super Mario Bros. 2 up their sleeve? We’re not talking about Angry Birds Rio. We’re talking about a game that builds upon the gameplay and themes of the original to create something entirely new and exciting.

This back-to-school season figures to be Angry Birds’ moment, and the property is still exploding. Last week, TCC signed a deal to undertake worldwide retail loyalty promotions for the property in supermarkets, hypermarkets, drug stores, health and beauty chains, and more.

New Street Fighter Animated Film Set for September Release

A new Street Fighter animated film, Street Fighter: The New Challengers, will be released September 6, Pacific Entertainment Corp. announced.

The film will be released as a standalone DVD or offered in a special collector bundle package that includes Capcom’s Street Fighter IV PC Game.

—Bryan Joiner

An article by New York Times reporter Stuart Elliott confirmed what any parent or consumer of press releases knows: back-to-school is starting earlier as retailers adjust to the rules of the new economy. Under these rules, consumers seem to make fewer trips to stores, so retailers have every incentive to get them to come to their store or find them online. Walmart announced today that it is slashing prices on back-to-school and back-to-college items, going as far to specifically note that Toy Story and Cars licensed backpack/lunch sets would be available on Walmart.com.

Elliott’s report mentions retailers, including Kmart, boasting “Christmas in July” sales, which dovetails with a reporter in yesterday’s Times by Stephanie Clifford which found grocery chains offering bulk deals to consumers in order to maximize in-store revenue. Clifford said grocery chain executives found that “in this economy, with people visiting stores less frequently, spending less per trip and sticking to their shopping lists more closely, the competition to offer more compelling deals is stronger than ever.” And that’s for food!

In this context, it makes sense that Walmart would offer its licensed back-to-school product cheap online while advertising cheap in-store goods. It’s easy to justify the purchase of a Toy Story or Cars item for slightly more money than a generic item when you’re at home, and haven’t spent the time or money to go to the store. Once a consumer is in the store, the inclination to buy generic could take over—the idea of saving a lot of money all at once is appealing, as grocers have discovered.

A Dow Jones Newswires article by Karen Talley hinted that retailers walk a knife-edge while trying to entice consumers to spend money for back-to-school items when those same consumers are used to dirt-cheap promotions around BTS time. In the article, Kit Yarrow, a professor of psychology at Golden Gate University, says that “Parents are going to be shocked and disappointed by the price of goods. They’re going to make sure their kids are outfitted, but won’t go beyond their budgets like they have in the past.

Of course, the entire licensing industry is predicated on the notion that parents will, in fact, go beyond their budgets, if only a little bit. And there’s proof that it’s happening, even now, with Mattel’s Cars 2 merchandise sales pushing company earnings up 56 percent from Q2 last year, which is proof that consumers are rational even in tough times: Even while cutting back on food, it’s worth spending the extra few dollars on a Mater backpack. Retailers might take a hit on BTS merchandise sales, and consumers might spend less, but the best licensors will remain resilient as always.

Target’s Funky New Partnership

Target has teamed with the Hamilton Wood & Type museum of Two Rivers, Wisc., for an apparel line.

Wait… what?

According to an article in The Atlantic by Steven Heller, Target’s Michael Alexin “fell in love” with the museum after seeing a film about it, and set out to create a partnership. The campaign is based around the tagline “Cool Never Fades” and is banking that consumers will know and love old typography enough to see it as a funky retro brand. The line debuted last week, and is perfect for, as Alexin says (wait for it)… Target’s back-to-school collection.

J-Lo and Marc Anthony: Off, but Still On at Kohl’s

Horrors! Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony may have split, but their clothing line at Kohl’s will move ahead as scheduled.

In a Daily Mail article by Tamara Abraham, LF USA’s Rick Darling (LIMA 2011 keynote speaker) says that the launch will remain unaffected. “‘We have two separate agreements with Jennifer and Marc and always intended to have separate lines. [Their split] doesn’t impact the agreements in any way.” LF USA sublicenses the brands to Kohl’s.

You may rest easy.

LIMA Elects Six New Reps to Board of Directors

The International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association has added six members to its Board of Directors.

Joining the LIMA Board are:

• Susie Lecker, SVP of Fisher-Price Friends, FP Brands
• Marty Malysz, President, Dependable Solutions, Inc.
• Carla Peyton, SVP, Licensed Consumer Products – The Americas, BBC Worldwide America
• Jennifer Richmond, Managing Director, Richmond Management Group
• James Slifer, VP, Business Development – The Joester Loria Group
• Cheryl Stoebenau, President, CAS Marketing

Leaving the board are Spin Master’s Adam Beder; Making Connections’ Rick Mallow; Marketing on Demand’s Stu Seltzer; Mattel’s Holly Stein; Strand IP’s Robert Strand; and Konami Digital Entertainment’s Careen Yapp.

—Bryan Joiner

F.A.B./Starpoint has announced a licensing agreement with the NBA, for products including backpacks, messenger bags, and lunch kits for back-to-school 2011. The colors, images, and graphics of the NBA will  be highlighted in the line, targeted at boys ages 5-18. The products will be distributed to mass, mid-tier, specialty, office supply, and sporting goods channels.

“The addition of the NBA to our roster of boy’s best-in-class licensing properties helps expand the age demographic for products that F.A.B./Starpoint offers to the market,” says Steve Russo, president and CEO of the company. “The franchise has an incredible appeal to young boys that is both positive and inspiring.”