Ad and Marketing Regulations
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Sharon Toerek
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In light of the United States Supreme Court’s consideration this week of the Pom Wonderful v. Coca Cola case (you can get up to date information on that case at Ad Age here, or some great background on it from Adweek here ), it feels appropriate to review the best ways to avoid getting into legal trouble due to false advertising claims.
It isn’t just outright lying in advertising…
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Ad and Marketing Regulations Content Marketing Law Copyright Law
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Sharon Toerek
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Content marketing is a rich and diverse medium used by marketers for many purposes – brand development, customer education, thought leadership, lead nurturing, and community building among them.
The legal issues created by content marketing are just as diverse and plentiful as the actual strategies. More importantly, the stakes of making a legal error as you execute your…
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Agency-Client Relationships Copyright Law
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Sharon Toerek
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As discussed in our last post about nondisclosure agreements, when developing a new client-Agency relationship, there are several distinct advantages to having an NDA (nondisclosure agreement) before starting with a new client. That is, IF you can get your prospective client to sign one.
But what if your Creative Agency has decided to pursue a new business opportunity without a…
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Agency-Client Relationships
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Sharon Toerek
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Creative agencies such as marketing firms, website developers, and advertising and design groups can often be reluctant to approach the issues of confidentiality and intellectual property rights ownership with prospective business clients. Those who set agency policies may feel that asking for a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) is too off-putting during business development discussions – as…
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Agency-Freelancer Relationships
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Sharon Toerek
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The use of freelance resources in the marketing world is a time-honored business practice. Sometimes you need freelancers for a specific client, for specific expertise, or to meet a crazy deadline. And increasingly, the industry is seeing the rise of business models like the virtual agency or strategic alliance models – giving creative services firms the flexibility to staff up, staff down,…
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Ad and Marketing Regulations Agency-Client Relationships Agency-Freelancer Relationships Copyright Law
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Sharon Toerek
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I’ve been fortunate to be invited to contribute guest legal content recently on several blogs and news outlets important to the ad and marketing communities. To share that information with you, and as a big thank you to my “hosts,” here they are:
For The Agency Post, an interactive publication for ad and marketing professionals (www.theagencypost.com), I drafted a column about current…
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Agency-Client Relationships Trademark Law
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Sharon Toerek
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I spend a lot of time talking about one of my favorite (really!) topics – trademark protection for brands. Like most things that get better with practice, the more often I explain the process to clients, the easier it is to boil it down to a few simple, top level steps.
And so here, the 4 “Easy Steps” to brand trademark protection that Agencies and their clients need to know…
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Speaking and Agency Training
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Sharon Toerek
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In addition to publishing content on Legal + Creative, Sharon Toerek is a highly experienced speaker, providing insight on marketing law and intellectual property issues by speaking at popular national marketing industry conferences and regional industry events, including:
Content Marketing World
AdAge Magazine Small Agency Conference
BOLO Digital Marketing Conference
Agency…
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Copyright Law
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Sharon Toerek
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B.S.A. Three little letters that can strike fear into the heart of an Agency owner or IT department head.
For the blissfully unfamiliar, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) is an organization that enforces software copyrights for many of the “heavy hitters” of the industry, including, most relevantly for marketing agencies, Adobe and Microsoft.
Software companies engage BSA to…
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Trademark Law Uncategorized
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Sharon Toerek
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Brandholders (and the agencies that help them with branding work) are about to experience a new, “wild west”-style age of trademark clearance and protection issues with the release of new Top Level Domains (TLD’s) by ICANN, the U.S. registrar or internet domain names.
In light of its plans to release hundreds of new TLD’s in rapid succession, over 1,900 applications were submitted to…
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