Advertising, Marketing & Privacy Law Practice

A federal district court in Utah recently found a marketer liable for $1.6 million in damages by default under the CAN-SPAM Act for making required advertising-related email disclosures only in remotely stored images (if at all) and using a proxy domain name registration service to obscure header information in its unsolicited commercial email messages. The marketing company, operating as Better Broadcasting, LLC and/or IONO Interactive, sent approximately 13,453 unsolicited commercial emails . . .

Liisa M. Thomas ; Caroline A. Wenzke

In a follow up to our previous article, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned a lower court's dismissal of a trademark infringement claim brought against Oprah Winfrey. The trademark owner holds a federal registration for OWN YOUR POWER for use in connection with workshops and seminars in the field of entrepreneurship, marketing, business networking, and self-awareness. The lower court had held . . .

Mary Hutchings Reed ; Jason W. Gordon

When the Marine Stewardship Council recently requested comments on its "Certified Sustainable Seafood" certification and label, the FTC took the opportunity to remind the Council that its certification must be grounded in "sound science" and be objectively applied to allow consumers to identify seafood with environmental benefits. Without commenting on the Council's certification standards, the FTC referred the Council to the recently revised . . .

Mary Hutchings Reed ; Sara Skinner Chubb

Warner Bros. recently won a dismissal of a trademark infringement suit brought by a software developer, Fortres Grand. Fortres Grand sued Warner Bros. for trademark infringement related to the use of a fictional software program called "clean slate" in the Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. One of the plot lines in the film involves the character Selina Kyle and her attempt to procure a software program that will erase her criminal history from every computer database in t . . .

Brian D. Fergemann ; Jason W. Gordon

The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reviewed a dismissal of a class action complaint that was filed against Time Warner Cable regarding its advertising claims for its Road Runner Internet service. According to the complaint, Road Runner provided (1) an "always-on connection" (2) at a "blazing speed" (3) that is "up to 3 times the speed of most standard DSL packages and up to 100x faster than dial-up," and (4) the "fastest, easiest way to get online." Plaintiffs, who sued on behal . . .

Brian D. Fergemann ; Jason W. Gordon