In recent years, a boomlet of litigation – primarily in California – has arisen regarding the product known as “evaporated cane juice” or “ECJ.” The product – made by extracting fluid from crushed sugar cane, clarifying the fluid, evaporating the fluid to create a concentrate,…
Medical endorsements can be powerful selling tools for health care products. But if a medical professional has a connection to the company marketing the products that would be material to consumers in evaluating the credibility of the endorsement, the connection must be disclosed in advertising…
Does a food label advertising a product as “all natural fruit” mislead consumers when that product contains artificial preservatives? That is the question presented in Brazil v. Dole Food Co. Inc., which the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit answered with a definitive “maybe.”…
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 may need to be re-assessed and potentially modified…
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 in which an advertising message is false can have a…
Zara USA, Inc., the affiliate of the Spanish fashion retailer, has been hit with a class action lawsuit in federal court in California advancing a relatively simple and novel set of theories. Rose v. Zara USA, Inc. Plaintiff, represented by counsel Mark Geragos, contends that Zara…
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. SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GMBH. The opinion addressed…
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 enough to encompass alleged falsehoods in a flyer circulated by…
Late last month, the United States Olympic Committee (the “USOC”) sent a few not so nice warning letters to brands that sponsor athletes, but chose not to pay the “golden” price of becoming an “official” sponsor of the games. The USOC warned these brands about…
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 Division in which it concluded that the name Painter’s…
Jeffrey CadwellJeff advises clients on the availability, registrability, and stre...
Michael KeyesJ. Michael Keyes is an intellectual property attorney with exten...
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