10/24/2024

Advertising Law: Facing the Competition

Practice care in what you say within your advertising materials

We frequently tell clients and prospective clients that no matter what kind of business you own and no matter how much time you'd like to spend developing your products or providing your services, the thing that will take up most of your time as an entrepreneur is really marketing. You have to let potential customers and clients know about your products or services and why they should choose you over the competition. But how much can you really say about the competition in your advertising materials? 

Making Comparisons With Your Competitors

A federal law known as the Lanham Act provides the basis for our current system of trademark registrations. But it’s also used for a variety of unfair competition and false advertising claims, especially claims that your marketing disparaged one of your competitors or their products or services. Truthful, non-deceptive, and objectively measurable comparisons with your competitors are legal, even if you identify the competitor by name or brand name*, illustrate the differences between your products or services, or provide other factual information. 
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And while your ad campaign might be true and perfectly legal, you should still be careful when taking on competitors with much larger advertising (and legal) budgets than your own. Attracting the wrong kind of attention can not only drown out your marketing efforts but may also drown you in legal fees. Even if the law is on your side, can you afford to spend months or years in litigation proving that your marketing campaign was true and not misleading or deceptive? 

Please select this link to read the complete article from the Law Office of Maritza S. Nelson, LLC.