False Advertising Claims: A Primer on the Law

False Advertising Claims

A Primer on the Law

Topic 1: Look to the Lanham Act

Your competitor engages in what you believe may be false advertising. Alternatively, you seek to reduce your own exposure to a false advertising challenge. In either case, your best reference point is a federal statute called the Lanham Act, which essentially prohibits commercial advertising that isrepresents the characteristics of the advertiser's or a competitor's goods and services. Both direct and indirect competitors of a party engaged in false advertising may bring a false advertising lawsuit under the Lanham Act. The remedies which they may seek to recover include injunctive relief (e.g., a court order prohibiting further use of the advertising), and in the appropriate cases, monetary awards for lost profits, defendant's ill-gotten gain, enhanced damages, costs of the action and attorney's fees.

Other Topics:

Topic 2: The Advertising Must Be False or Misleading
Topic 3: Threshold Considerations
Topic 4: Proving That a Statement is False
Topic 5: Proving That a Statement is Misleading
Topic 6: Remedies for False or Misleading Advertising
Topic 7: Other Private Rights of Action
Topic 8: Self-Regulation Through the National Advertising Division
Topic 9: Government Regulation

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