Item 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

Coach is involved in various routine legal proceedings as both plaintiff and defendant incident to the ordinary course of its business, including proceedings to protect Coach’s intellectual property rights, litigation instituted by persons alleged to have been injured upon premises within Coach’s control and litigation with present or former employees.

As part of Coach’s policing program for its intellectual property rights, from time to time, Coach files lawsuits in the U.S. and abroad alleging acts of trademark counterfeiting, trademark infringement, patent infringement, trade dress infringement, copyright infringement, unfair competition, trademark dilution and/or state or foreign law claims. At any given point in time, Coach may have a number of such actions pending. These actions often result in seizure of counterfeit merchandise and/or out of court settlements with defendants. From time to time, defendants will raise, either as affirmative defenses or as counterclaims, the invalidity or unenforceability of certain of Coach’s intellectual properties.

Although Coach’s litigation with present or former employees is routine and incidental to the conduct of Coach’s business, as well as for any business employing significant numbers of employees, such litigation can result in large monetary awards when a civil jury is allowed to determine compensatory and/or punitive damages for actions claiming discrimination on the basis of age, gender, race, religion, disability or other legally protected characteristic or for termination of employment that is wrongful or in violation of implied contracts.

Coach believes that the outcome of all pending legal proceedings in the aggregate will not have a material effect on Coach’s business or consolidated financial statements.

Coach has not entered into any transactions that have been identified by the IRS as abusive or that have a significant tax avoidance purpose. Accordingly, we have not been required to pay a penalty to the IRS for failing to make disclosures required with respect to certain transactions that have been identified by the IRS as abusive or that have a significant tax avoidance purpose.