Comparative advertising can be an effective marketing tool to tout product benefits vs. competitors, but consumers shouldn’t need to read confusing fine print disclaimers and whip out their calculators to understand the ad...more
If you were shopping for snack crackers and saw Cheez-It packages that looked like the ones shown here, how much whole grain content would you think the crackers contain – a little, a lot, all of it?
The Second Circuit...more
We blogged last week about a recent National Advertising Division case involving a Kimberly-Clark ad campaign that illustrated the well-known NAD maxim: “an advertiser is responsible for all reasonable interpretations of its...more
Deceptive “Made in USA” advertising and labeling claims have received a lot of attention from the FTC in recent years, reflecting the agency’s recognition that USA-origin claims are a persuasive selling point and should not...more
Well-known perfume marketer Coty Inc. had a big win in New York federal district court, obtaining injunctive relief and $6.5 million dollars in an accounting of profits from copycat perfume seller Excell Brands, LLC. In an...more
9/29/2017
/ Advertising ,
Brand ,
Dilution ,
Fair Use ,
False Advertising ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Nominative Fair Use Doctrine ,
Trade Dress ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks
An advertising slogan like “A Diamond is Forever” may be eternal, but the same cannot be said about some comparative advertising claims. If a company advertises its product as superior to a competitive product, the ad claim...more
What is the difference between an advertisement that is literally false by necessary implication and one that is impliedly false? It may seem like a fine (and somewhat opaque) distinction, but determining the particular way...more
On September 9, 2016, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an interesting decision in a false advertising case involving a dispute between competitors in the home pregnancy testing market. Church & Dwight Co. v....more
Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act is generally considered a broad-based vehicle for asserting false advertising claims. For the owner and operator of the Trump Hotel Las Vegas, however, the statutory section was not broad...more
In theory, a product brand name can communicate a false advertising message, but it doesn’t happen often in practice. Such an instance was found to have occurred according to a recent decision by the National Advertising...more
In a further development in the yogurt false advertising battle between Dannon and Chobani, the federal district court has rejected Chobani’s request that it reconsider and limit the scope of the injunction it issued in late...more
In a recent post, we provided guidance on how an advertiser might execute a Super Bowl-related promotion even if it is not an authorized game sponsor. First, avoid mentioning the trademarked name of the event — instead,...more
When I opened up a newspaper a few weeks ago and saw an ad by Chobani for its Simply 100 Greek Yogurt, my first thought was, “that’s going to provoke a false advertising dispute.” Here’s what Chobani said about its competitor...more
Positive results of scientific research on a company’s products can provide a tempting topic for advertising and promotion. If an article published in a well-established, peer-reviewed journal says that your company’s...more