Brand Activation Legal Committee: May 2020

For May’s meeting Perkins Coie LLP’s presentation will include a discussion of recent: (i) FTC developments; (ii) Lanham Act and class action false advertising updates; (iii) NAD/NARB updates; and (iv) privacy developments. Presenting from Perkins Coie LLP will be Partners Jason Howell, Amanda Beane and Nicola Menaldo, and Counsel Mark Goodrich.

Jason Howell, Partner, serves as co-chair of the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions practice and as a member of the Trademark, Copyright & Media practice. He counsels businesses ranging from startups to top Fortune 50 companies in the retail, entertainment, gaming, software, internet, food and beverage, and advertising industries.

Jason counsels’ clients on marketing, advertising, brand and consumer protection, and regulatory compliance issues, such as advertising claims and substantiation, sale and discount advertising, marketing and sponsorship agreements, product development, contests and sweepstakes, endorsements and influencers, and promotional offers. Jason also represents clients in trademark, false advertising and unfair competition disputes, and positions clients for success by auditing marketing assets and creating in-house marketing and advertising compliance programs.

Amanda Beane, Partner, serves as co-chair of the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions practice. She counsels and defends clients on matters related to consumer protection and unfair competition, particularly marketing and advertising law, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). She also routinely represents clients in contract, trade secret, noncompetition agreements and other commercial matters. Her experience includes a significant roster of class action defense cases, including high-impact and nationwide class actions.

In over 15 years of practice, Amanda has represented clients such as Zillow, CenturyLink, Facebook Technologies, Coinstar, Sprint and Redbox. Amanda is licensed in Washington and California, and she has handled cases in state and federal courts across the country, including appeals and arguments before the Washington Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Nicola Menaldo, Partner, defends and provides counsel to technology and retail clients on a wide range of issues central to their business needs, including privacy and data security, marketing, biometrics, scraping and web crawling, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Nicola both defends clients in class action litigation and provides product counseling and compliance advice to help avoid litigation outcomes. Statutes and regulations that regularly arise in Nicola’s practice include:

• Biometrics laws and regulations, including the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA), Texas’s Capture of Use of Biometric Identifier Act, and Washington’s Biometric Identifiers Act
• California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
• CAN-SPAM Act
• Communications Decency Act (CDA)
• Song-Beverly Act, and other state merchant point-of-sale laws
• Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and the Stored Communications Act (SCA)
• Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)

Mark Goodrich, Counsel, provides guidance on a variety of advertising compliance matters and helps brands navigate complex state, federal and local advertising, promotion and consumer protection laws. Mark’s experience includes counseling related to claim substantiation, endorsements and testimonials, deceptive pricing, discount or coupon offers, negative option or “automatic renewal” of subscriptions, cause marketing, online disclosures, intellectual property rights, free offers, native advertising, and other Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules and guidelines. He also frequently drafts rules for contests, sweepstakes and related games, and provides counsel on how to structure promotions to comply with state and federal laws.

In addition to his counseling practice, Mark regularly reviews advertising agency and creative services agreements, co-branding agreements, celebrity endorsement agreements, media and publicity releases, and ambassador and social media influencer agreements. He also frequently drafts terms related to rewards programs, ambassador programs and other promotional programs.