Commercial Speech | Proskauer on Advertising Law

Judge Recommends Lanham Act Litigant “Shake it Off”

By Lawrence Weinstein, Anisha Shenai-Khatkhate and Nicole Sockett on May 11, 2021 Posted in Lanham Act

Judge Joshua D. Wolson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently dismissed a Lanham Act suit that challenged critical comments on a blog (not this one!). The case was brought by plaintiff Crash Proof Retirement, a retirement investment adviser who was the subject of the criticism. The defendant author of … Continue Reading

Eleventh Circuit Does Not Skim Over First Amendment Concerns in Labeling Milk

By Lawrence Weinstein and Sarah Sullivan on June 20, 2017 Posted in Regulatory

Be careful not to skim over potential First Amendment challenges to commercial speech regulations in labeling cases. By ‘whey’ of example, the Eleventh Circuit recently found that the actions of the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and the Chief of the Florida Bureau of Dairy Industry violated Ocheesee Creamery LLC’s First Amendment rights related to the … Continue Reading

No Scrubs Permitted: Eleventh Circuit Affirms Blog Post Is Not Advertising Actionable Under Lanham Act

By Alexander Kaplan and Evelyn Pang on March 31, 2017 Posted in Lanham Act

In an interesting recent opinion, the Eleventh Circuit held that a doctor’s blog post criticizing another doctor and his clinical practice could not form the basis of a Lanham Act claim because the blog posts were not commercial advertising or promotion. This case thus involves a rare circumstance in which a communication did not qualify … Continue Reading