trademark basics that every interactive agency needs to know or will pay for later
August 12, 2010What is a trademark? Why should interactive agencies even care about them? If you are in the business of creating new logo designs, launching new brands, or refreshing client brands, then a meaningful understanding of trademarks may help an agency and their clients avoid significant pitfalls that could save thousands if not millions of dollars.
The most common situation in which agencies are exposed to trademark infringement is the development of new designs for client logos or product names that may resemble or sound like another company’s marks. Agencies may erroneously believe that if they use a mark for a different classification of goods and services from an already established mark means there are no issues regarding trademark dilution or infringement. This is a faulty assumption.
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Serious Consequences For Creative Firms That Do Not Effectively Manage Copyrights
June 12, 2010The phone is ringing off the hook, the emails keep piling in, the client is demanding that the campaign is launched by the end of day and your vendors are already three weeks behind schedule. This is a typical day in the life of a creative agency account manager who has to balance between ensuring customer satisfaction, the company’s interest in making a profit and the production team’s ability to bring in the project on-time and on budget.
In the bustle of this day, what easily gets left out of the equation is ensuring that the legal terms and conditions of the services agreement is being properly structured into the agency’s process. Most likely, copyrights are often overlooked, particularly when dealing with third party subcontractors and freelancers.
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7 DEADLY SINS OF CREATIVE AGENCY SUBCONTRACTING
April 12, 2010Over the next few years, leading economists forecast a jobless economic recovery for the US market. As many advertising and interactive agencies have downsized their workforce during the recession, it is likely that prudence will dictate agencies’ reluctance to re-staff during the next few years. To minimize overhead and cash burn is for agencies to step up their subcontracting activities with free-lancers and smaller agencies to supplement their core teams. This way, the agency maintains some flexibility to increase or decrease staffing based upon projects in hand...
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“BET THE FARM” RISKS INTERACTIVE AGENCIES FACE IN THEIR MASTER SERVICES AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS
March 12, 2010When we interview interactive agencies as to their standard practices and thinking for negotiating their master services agreements (“MSA’s”) with prospective customers, they typically will not possess the required level of risk management knowledge to identify significant threats to their business relative to the value assessment of the revenues, identity enhancement and, most importantly, profitability...
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Maximizing Post-Recession Building and Exit
December 12, 2009An effective business strategy is a plan of action to fulfill the business mission of increasing enterprise value for its owners. The meaning of “value” is not obvious, as it is a relative interpretation and not something concrete that you can point to. In the context of investment or acquisition, value is a fundamental assessment of relative return on deployed capital.
Most entrepreneurs don’t appreciate that their proposition to investors or buyers competes with potentially hundreds or even thousands of other investment vehicles...
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Victory For Video Games in California
March 12, 2009I had previously written an article in November 2005 regarding In reaction to Governor Schwarzenegger’s A.B. 1179, making it illegal for the sale of a “violent video game(s)” to anyone under the age of 18. The Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) had filed suit to seek judicial determination that the statute was unconstitutional.
In 2007, Judge Ronald Whyte issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement upon determination that the statute was unconstitutional which was appealed by the Governor’s office. As of last month, the 9th Circuit rejected the state’s appeal...
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Grokster on Remand; The Implications of Peer-to-Peer on Social Networks
November 12, 2007While most attorneys in the new media / IP practice are very familiar with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. 545 U.S. 913 (2005) 380 F.3d 1154 the recent lower court order for permanent injunction warrants some attention. Having written several articles related to the safe harbor rules of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the effect of the District Court’s holding on User Generated Content social networking sites would appear extremely relevant for technology and IP practitioners...
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The Battle of The Titans: Technology v. Content A Legacy of Our Culture
November 12, 2007Almost like a scene from a popular epoch film, two formidable industries face
each other in a war over territory, survival, and power…the battleground…peer-to-peer file sharing technologies, user generated content sites, traditional notions of copyright law and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). It is not surprising after the Viacom $1 billion lawsuit filed against YouTube this past March has drawn much attention to this old world v. new world disruption that implicates not only the business community and markets, but also the very tenants of US intellectual property laws. As no one knows for sure as to the outcome of these legal campaigns, one can only offer speculation as to what will the future hold for two seemingly conflicting business models...
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advertisers be warned: fine print may not always save you
August 12, 2006Most advertisers understand that disclaimers and fine print which are required for print and television ads to meet broadcast and publisher guidelines have traditionally been a safe-haven for establishing industry standards against false and deceptive trade practices. Notwithstanding this, in an effort to devise creative direct response campaigns to elicit higher conversion, many agencies and advertisers push the proverbial envelope with promotional mechanisms which make an inference of deception and use fine print legal terms to try to mitigate the culpability associated with such misleading practices...
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perfect 10 v. Google - Issues With Framing
March 12, 2006While most of us regularly conduct Google searched to find content that is relevant to us, a recent preliminary injunction grated by the 9th Circuit has created a potential ripple effect in the world of customized content search and aggregation.
More specifically, on February 2006, the US District Court granted Perfect 10 an injunction against Google from posting infringing thumbnail image which was retrieved using Google's image search capability. Further, while the facts rested primarily upon the image search function used in conjunction with in-linking and Google's Adsense program, the implications of this decision is significant...
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a hand in the cookie jar for ad agencies; copyright claims against chiat day
February 12, 2004In February 2004, celebrity rap singer Eminem filed a federal copyright infringement action in US Federal District Court (6th District) against Apple, Viacom and their advertising agency TBWA/Chiat Day. This past month, the case has sustained the first round of defenses and should proceed to trial unless first settled by the parties. Eminem alleges that Apple's MTV and web broadcast advertisement depicting a ten year old singing the Oscar-winning theme song to the film "8 Mile" to promote iPod and iTunes infringes upon his copyrights...
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can-spam: the new deal for email marketers
December 12, 2003With a Congressional estimate of approximately 45% of email transmissions constituting unsolicited spam e-mail, the landscape of internet marketing has been constantly changing over the past several years, The U.S. Senate recently passed the CAN-SPAM bill entitled "Controlling the Assault of Unsolicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, (S.877), which is expected to get signed into law early next year. This new legislation will have far-reaching effects on agencies implementing integrated marketing campaigns...
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