Insights

Washington – January 10, 2024: Crowell & Moring has published Litigation Forecast 2024: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year. The 12th-annual Litigation Forecast focuses on trends in intellectual property, regulatory and other U.S. litigation, with special coverage of supply chain recovery and international litigation.

Washington – August 17, 2023: The 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 47 firm lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 41 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.”

Washington – June 8, 2023: Crowell & Moring has been recommended in seven practice areas in the 16th edition of the Legal 500 United States. In addition, partner Daniel R. Forman, co-chair of the firm’s Government Contracts Group, has been named to the Legal 500’s “Hall of Fame” for Government Contracts. The firm’s full rankings can be viewed here.

On January 11, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to modify the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (“COPPA Rule”), a set of regulations implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) statute. Overall, the NPRM seeks to strengthen and clarify the COPPA Rule in response to technological advances and changes in the way children interact with online offerings. In particular, the NPRM follows a public comment period in which the FTC noted novel issues affecting the COPPA Rule, including the educational technology sector, voice-enabled connected devices, and platforms directed to general audiences that host third-party content directed to children. Comments on the NPRM are due on March 11, 2024.

Although one wouldn’t typically look to the Federal Election Commission as a leader in setting regulations about intellectual property, the threat of deep fakes generated by artificial intelligence spurred recent action to prohibit the use of such images in the 2024 elections.[1] The urgency is obvious: peoples’ ability to use AI to create fake images has evolved much faster than the technology to detect it or the ability of regulators to manage it.[2] These concerns are not limited to politics: players in the music industry have been negotiating around the use of generative AI to create music that mimics established recording artists,[3] and lawsuits have already surfaced over deep-fake technology across the entertainment industry.[4] While there is no consensus on how this will affect these industries, or brands in general, Congress has recently taken more urgent actions as well, including the Senate subcommittee on Intellectual Property holding its second hearing in two months on the intersection of AI and the right of publicity.[5]

In June 2021, Penn State filed a lawsuit for trademark infringement against online retailer, Vintage Brand, LLC for selling items containing the school’s trademarks. Vintage Brand countersued claiming, among other things, that three of the university’s marks at issue should be cancelled because they are ornamental and fail to function as trademarks. It is this claim that Penn State sought to dismiss.

After the recent barrage of lawsuits filed by copyright owners against artificial intelligence platforms, it will likely take a few years for the dust to settle on multiple legal issues surrounding the new technology and intellectual property rights, says Crowell & Moring partner David Ervin, who co-leads the firm’s Advertising & Brand Protection Group.

The landscape for advertisers and marketers has been shifting in an exciting direction. Over the past decade, industries have firmly embraced multichannel communication and brand building, creating a strategy based on a mix of traditional media and social media, with the persona of the “influencer” as the modern incarnation of brand communication. However, early adopters are on to the next, new universe for connecting with a different, wider, and younger audience around their brands: the metaverse.

The 2016 ANA/BAA 38th Marketing Law Conference, at the Downtown Chicago Marriott, Nov. 9-11, 2016 builds on the tradition as the broadest marketing and advertising law conference with deep practical legal content, fruitful networking and major CLE credits. Deep dives into all aspects of Marketing and Advertising Law and Digital Media; IP and Privacy, FTC, State A.G. and state-regulation (NAD, CARU), Lanham Act, Class Actions, with many new sessions and 5 more sessions added to the total; Hear from 125 of the nation's leading inside and outside counsel and federal, state and self-regulatory officials. In 2015 a record attendance of 750, with over 200 major brands present.

Program: 1:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Eastern

Please join us for a one day conference to meet your MCLE needs by February 1st.  The only conference geared toward in-house counsel! Advertising & Product Risk Management Group Partner Dave Ervin, Commercial Litigation Group Partner Steve Allison and Antitrust Group Partner Chahira Solh are speaking at this conference. Their topic: "Helping Sales and Marketing Avoid an Anti-defamation, Infringement or Unfair Competition Claims from Competitors."

Gift cards, rewards points, and other loyalty programs have improved the way retailers, consumer brands, entertainment companies, restaurants, and other merchants connect with their consumers. However, with these innovative programs comes risk and compliance concerns. Specifically, stringent federal and state consumer protection laws that are sometimes in conflict make compliance associated with these programs tricky and expensive. At the same time, arcane escheat laws subject companies to potential liabilities in the millions for unclaimed property obligations. The risks to companies holding unredeemed account balances has increased as cash-strapped states have ramped-up their enforcement efforts, including Delaware’s recent challenge of third party gift card service provider models and separate issuer entities.