The Advertising Law Blog provides commentary and news on developing legal issues in advertising, promotional marketing, Internet, and privacy law. This blog is sponsored by the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions group at Olshan. The practice is geared to servicing the needs of the advertising, promotional marketing, and digital industries with a commitment to providing personal, efficient and effective legal service.
NCAA Clears The Way For Monetizing Athletes’ Names, Images and Likenesses by 2021
In today’s global marketplace, it is more important than ever for a brand owner to be aware of international considerations while building and marketing the brand in the United States. There are many similarities in the laws across the various jurisdictions in the world, although there are also significant differences, and a brand owner can run into serious or unintended consequences when expanding the brand into other countries. Brand owners should not assume that activities permitted or appropriate in the United States are also permitted and appropriate elsewhere. Many of these issues were discussed recently in Moscow at a conference of international intellectual property lawyers at which I presented, as the United States representative, on a panel entitled “Brand Protection Strategy in the United States and Russia.” The conference was a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Russian law firm Gorrodissky & Partners.
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it is seeking public comment on ways to improve its existing regulations for negative option marketing, namely, the need for amendments to its Rule Concerning the Use of Prenotification Negative Option Plans (the “Negative Option Rule” or “Rule”).
ESPN reported that the World Boxing Organization (WBO) ordered an immediate rematch for Olshan client Krzysztof Glowacki against current WBO cruiserweight (200-pound) champion, Mairis Briedis.
The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (“NAD”) recently recommended that Bayer Healthcare LLC (“Bayer” or the “advertiser”) discontinue particular comparative superiority claims for Aleve, including “Proven Better on Pain than Tylenol,” following a challenge by Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., maker of Tylenol products. The decision shows the scrutiny NAD will give to broad and unqualified superior efficacy claims.
California’s onerous privacy regulations will soon be in effect. Unless exempted, businesses that collect personal data from residents of California need to make sure they are in compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act, California Civil Code §§1798.100-1798.199 (“CCPA”) by January 1, 2020. If you have not yet done so, we urge you to take appropriate steps now to avoid potential liability for failure to comply with this new law.
Ariana Grande has filed a lawsuit against Forever 21 and its related beauty brand, Riley Rose (founded by the daughters of Forever 21 founder, Do Wan Chang), alleging that the fast fashion and beauty brands capitalized on the success of Ms. Grande’s Thank U, Next album by posting images of Ms. Grande on the brands’ social media accounts as well as images of a model bearing a striking resemblance to Ms. Grande.
Focusing on its use of warning letters to crack down on impermissible health claims, the FTC recently sent warning letters to three companies that sell a variety of CBD products, including those taking the form of “oils, tinctures, capsules, gummies, and creams.” In its Press Release announcing the issuance of the warning letters, the FTC noted that it had cautioned the companies against advertising that products, including those containing CBD, can “prevent, treat, or cure human disease” in the absence of “competent and reliable scientific evidence to support such claims.”