The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), according to its website, is “the nation’s consumer protection agency” and “works for the consumer to prevent fraud, deception, and unfair business practices in the marketplace.”  To that end, the FTC publishes a number of resource guides to help businesses comply with federal law and FTC regulations.  One such guide is the Guide Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials which attempts to draw a line between “endorsements” (which must always reflect the honest opinion of the endorser) and pure “advertisements” or other non-endorsements (which do not have to comply with endorsement guidelines).  The Endorsement Guide provides examples of what does and does not constitute “endorsements” by consumers, experts, and organizations, …read more

CBS Interactive Inc. v. National Football League Players Association is the most recent case permitting the commercial use of professional athlete’s names and statistics without permission.

CBS Interactive operates the website CBSSports.com.  The NFL Player’s Association acts as the exclusive collective bargaining representative for active players in the NFL.  Among other things, the NFLPA has the right to license the use of the individual players’ names, signatures, facsimile, voices, pictures, photographs, likenesses, and biographical information in connection with “group licensing programs” involving six or more players (e.g., fantasy sports, video games, etc.).  NFLPA assigned this right to Players, Inc. in exchange for royalties.  Players, Inc. in turn licenses this right to companies like CBS to use in programs such …read more

On Saturday, June 13, at 12:01 a.m. (EDT), Facebook, the venerable social networking site, started allowing users to create personalized usernames, otherwise known as “vanity URLs”.  Facebook has been announcing this feature for the last week or so, stating that it will make it easier for people to find users on the site.  Before, the URL for a user might read “www.facebook.com/id=23427602734″ but now can be personalized to read “www.facebook.com/mwbower.”  Twitter and YouTube have been offering this feature for some time.

As has been the case over at Twitter and YouTube, vanity URLs can cause problems for trademark owners when users “personalize” their URLs with famous brands (e.g., “facebook.com/[brand name here]“).  Some have suggested that this use of a …read more

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), according to its website, is “the nation’s consumer protection agency” and “works for the consumer to prevent fraud, deception, and unfair business practices in the marketplace.”  To that end, the FTC publishes a number of resource guides to help businesses comply with federal law and FTC regulations.  One such guide is the Guide Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials which attempts to draw a line between “endorsements” (which must always reflect the honest opinion of the endorser) and pure “advertisements” or other non-endorsements (which do not have to comply with endorsement guidelines).  The Endorsement Guide provides examples of what does and does not constitute “endorsements” by consumers, experts, and organizations, and addresses when and …read more

“A 12-person jury deliberated six hours over two days in January before awarding [the plaintiff] $50,000 in compensatory damages.  The verdict made him the first plaintiff awarded damages in a libel suit against a blogger….The case is one of at least 50 similar suits filed in the past several years.” — Kansas City Daily News, October 26, 2006

“Social media – always fun until someone gets sued.” — FP Legal Post, March 16, 2009

What are blogs, wikis, and online forums?

Blogs, wikis, and online forums are part of the Web 2.0 social media explosion that are changing the way we do business and work with each other. Web 2.0 represents one of the greatest opportunities of our lifetime to share ideas and …read more