Expert Analysis

• Cannabis Ads On Twitter: Why Marketers Should Be Cautious

  

  Twitter is the first big social media company to allow cannabis advertising on its platform, and others will likely follow suit — but marketing companies and advertisers will need to carefully consider the disparity between state and federal laws, in addition to the platform's restrictions, say David Klein and Julie Klein at Klein Moynihan.

• New Education Dept. Rule Applies To Broad Range Of Vendors

  

  The U.S. Department of Education's revised "third-party servicer" definition likely intends to capture only vendors truly providing student loan, recruiting and retention services, but its language is so broad that it will leave higher education institutions with no choice but to carefully evaluate all of their technology vendor relationships, says Craig Gilley at Venable.

• Ahead Of The Oscars, A Look At Legal Fixes For Film Diversity

  

  As the Oscars approach, there remains a nagging diversity issue in the film industry — for which legal solutions, like inclusion riders and equitable corporate structures, exist — that should be called out, says Sekou Campbell at Culhane Meadows.

• Fla. NIL Law May Cue State Publicity Right Deregulation Trend

  

  A new Florida name, image and likeness law that significantly reduces prohibitions on colleges, athletic departments and coaches from participating in endorsement deals is a sign of a possible trend of state deregulation of student-athletes' publicity rights — and an attractive development for businesses, says Drew Dorner at Duane Morris.

• 3 Reasons Why Reframing Can Create Juror Backlash

  

  Though reframing jurors' existing negative perceptions of your client or product can be an important trial tool, this strategy can also backfire if it fails to consider how people may react to overt persuasion attempts or perceived deception, say Nick Polavin and Jill Leibold at IMS Consulting.

• How Alcohol Cos. Can Best Follow New Advertising Rules

  

  The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau recently issued new guidance on how the bureau’s rules on advertising apply to alcohol brands’ online presence, meaning industry members should take extra care when putting anything on social media, say Jason Canvasser and Alyson Acheson at Clark Hill.

• Justices Leave Questions Open On Dual-Purpose Atty Advice

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court's recent dismissal of In re: Grand Jury on grounds that certiorari was improvidently granted leaves unresolved a circuit split over the proper test for deciding when attorney-client privilege protects a lawyer's advice that has multiple purposes, say Susan Combs and Richard Kiely at Holland & Hart.

• Retailers Should Start Preparing For Upcoming Legal Changes

  

  Retailers must prepare for a slew of laws and regulations going into effect in 2023 — such as bans on fur, omnibus data protections laws, PFAS reporting, and more — to avoid being caught off guard by lawsuits and to be ready for proper compliance, say attorneys at Benesch.

• A TM Lesson From Damar Hamlin's 'Did We Win?' Shirts

  

  Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin's recent application for the "Did We Win?" trademark — just days after suffering a cardiac arrest, and two days before selling T-shirts with the phrase — is a reminder for attorneys that registering a trademark does not create it, but using it in commerce does, says Jeremiah Foley at Harness IP.

• Justices' Pending Warhol Ruling Carries Impact Beyond Art

  

  Bart Lazar at Seyfarth discusses the tremendous impact on copyright law and appropriation of a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision in Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, along with the issue of whether the judiciary should play the role of an art critic.

• The Potential Antitrust Impact Of High Court Section 230 Case

  

  Attorneys at Proskauer discuss the antitrust implications of the coming U.S. Supreme Court decision in Gonzalez v. Google, in which even a small change in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act would carry broad ramifications for how online platforms are run.

• Advertisers Touting ESG Goals Should Keep An Eye On NAD

  

  A surprising recent National Advertising Division decision that food giant JBS could not support its aspirational claims about environmental goals should prompt advertisers to look to the NAD, at least for now, for examples of the gold standard in substantiating green claims, say Gonzalo Mon and Katie Rogers at Kelley Drye.

• Why Celebrities Are Ensnared In SEC Crypto-Touting Actions

  

  Given the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's increasingly broad view of which crypto-assets constitute securities and its willingness to go after celebrities, including most recently former NBA star Paul Pierce, for violating anti-touting laws, promoters need to pay close attention to their disclosure obligations, say Kurt Gottschall and Payton Roberts at Haynes Boone.

• Steps Lawyers Can Take Following Involuntary Terminations

  

  Though lawyers can struggle to recover from involuntary terminations, it's critical that they be able to step back, review any feedback given and look for opportunities for growth, say Jessica Hernandez at JLH Coaching & Consulting and Albert Tawil at Lateral Hub.

• The Fed. Circ. In February: Infringement Defense Challenges

  

  In Lite-Netics v. Nu Tsai Capital, the Federal Circuit's alternative reliance on a debatable claim-construction argument in its recent reversal of a grant of a preliminary injunction serves only to illustrate the difficulty that infringement defendants have in proving the objective baselessness of the patent owner's claims, says Paul Stewart at Knobbe Martens.