Marketing and ad agency leaders are frequently surprised when I tell them that they are probably sitting on a large pile of intellectual property, a lot of it underutilized and most of it unprotected.
Agencies are typically so focused on the ideation and creativity they employ for their clients that they rarely take a breather to think about their own intellectual capital. Or,…
Over the past few days I had the honor of meeting with a group of ad agency owners who are Agency Management Institute members to discuss legal issues in their industry. And, since the agency folks luckily chose Puerto Rico as our meeting destination, my husband and I were able to fit in an enjoyable side trip to the Bacardi ® rum factory outside of Old San Juan for a tour.
The tour of…
You’re sailing along on what feels like a perfectly normal Tuesday at the Agency when you get the dreaded call or email that reports one of the following scenarios:
– That prospect? The one you pitched but didn’t convert? They’ve got a brand new campaign and it looks just like Concept #2 from your pitch book.
– Another Agency’s redesigned website looks oddly familiar.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…