This post was written by Kimberly R. Chow and John P. Feldman.
On September 15, a judge in Boston ruled that Yelp must reveal the identity of an anonymous commenter who wrote a negative review of a jeweler on the online review site.
The order to non-party Yelp in the attempted defamation suit of the
Does the First Amendment trump the right of an aggrieved merchant who seeks to unmask the identity of the authors of scathing reviews? That’s how many framed the key issue in Yelp! Inc. v. Hadeed Carpet Cleaning, Inc., which was appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court. Did the court answer the question as to
Two recent rights of publicity cases illustrated the parameters of using a public figure’s name, likeness, identity or image for commercial purposes, without consent for commemorative purposes. But when does commemoration cross the line into unlawful use of one’s right of publicity?
Jordan v. Jewel Food Stores, Inc., No. 10-c-340 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 12
On January 26, the manufacturer of a green coffee bean extract (GCBE) agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission $9 million to settle charges brought by the FTC that the manufacturer deceptively advertised weight loss benefits of GCBE.
Lindsey Duncan, through his companies Genesis Today, Inc. and Pure Health, LLC (the “defendants”), promoted GCBE on
Two nonprofits, the Alliance for Natural Health – USA, and TechFreedom, released a report last week alleging that the Federal Trade Commission broke free speech laws when in January 2013, it barred POM Wonderful from asserting that its pomegranate juice is “effective in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of any disease,” including heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction, unless the claim is supported by two randomized, well-controlled, human clinical trials. In their report, the nonprofits estimate that the two clinical trials required by the FTC could cost up to $600 million each.
The POM order highlights the balancing act between requiring substantiation to ensure a claim is truthful and not misleading to consumers, and overly burdensome substantiation requirements that suppress otherwise truthful speech. The nonprofits’ report criticizes the FTC’s ruling as falling into the latter category by requiring an enormously increased level of substantiation.
Continue Reading Advocacy Groups Say FTC is at Odds with the First Amendment
On January 6, 2010, The Weatherproof Garment Company (a division of David Peyser Sportwear) put up a billboard (actually two, a diptych) in New York’s Times Square. The advertiser used an Associated Press (AP) licensed photo of President Barack Obama during his visit to China’s Great Wall back in autumn wearing a Weatherproof jacket. Legal