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.
On November 15, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published its amendments to its Negative Option Rule, retitled as the Rule Concerning Recurring Subscriptions and Other Negative Option Programs (the “Final Rule”) in the Federal Register.
Chair of Olshan’s Insurance Coverage Practice Jeremy King was quoted in a Law360 article (subscription required) on the Delaware suit by Meta's insurers to free them from defending numerous lawsuits alleging the company deliberately designed addicting platforms.
Chair of Olshan’s Intellectual Property Law Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Brand Management & Protection Group Mary Grieco and associate Morgan Spina published a New York Law Journal article entitled “The Long Road To Settling a Trademark Case: Proactive Steps for Success” about the lengthy, and often expensive, legal proceedings surrounding trademark disputes.
Andrew Lustigman, Chair of Olshan's Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Brand Management & Protection Group, and associate Morgan Spina published an article in New York Law Journal entitled “FTC's New 'Click To Cancel' Rule Is Here, But Will It Survive Judicial Challenge?.” In the article, Andy and Morgan discuss how automatic renewals for services—or “negative options”—continue to face amended laws. However, this has resulted in a patchwork of various regulations at the state and federal level, making absolute compliance a difficult proposition for companies.
As online sales take over the retail market, it is essential to show strong trademark use of the marks on retail websites to maintain brand identity and support the trademark filings. There are specific requirements in the way one uses the mark on a website so that the USPTO will accept it as trademark use. For trademark owners that sell products as well as run a retail store, there can be applications for the online retail store services and also for the goods sold, assuming those goods are branded with the trademark owner’s trademark. An online retail store that sells the brands of others and not its own brand would not be able to use the website in support of an application for goods.
Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP today announced that 35 attorneys across all of the firm’s practices have been selected to the 2024 New York Metro Super Lawyers® list. Twenty-seven lawyers have been named as “Super Lawyers” and eight have been named as “Rising Stars.” While on average no greater than five percent of the total lawyers in each state are selected for the Super Lawyers lists, thirty-eight percent of Olshan’s lawyers have been selected for this honor in 2024.
Andrew Lustigman, Chair of Olshan's Advertising, Marketing & Promotion's Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Brand Management & Protection Group, was quoted in a Bloomberg Law article (subscription required) on the legality of the recent sweepstakes launched by Elon Musk’s super political action committee America PAC, which is awarding a daily prize of $1 million to a swing state voter.
Highlighting the increasing regulatory focus on paid subscription cancellation, the Federal Trade Commission has taken action against Care.com, alleging that the company systematically deceived users as to the wages and jobs information they could access on Care.com, and failed to provide a simple method for users to cancel their paid memberships. As part of its settlement, Care has agreed to pay $8.5 million to the FTC.
Online games company loses motion based on unconscionability