April 27, 2014
Co-author with Mark Katz (Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg)
Information surveys are one of the most important functions that an association can perform for members. Surveys can be used to facilitate research initiatives and benchmarking exercises, increase market transparency and customer knowledge, promote improved products and services, and support industry lobbying and advocacy efforts.
April 25, 2014
Information about an interesting new competition law and associations webinar come into my inbox this morning entitled: Antitrust Risks for Trade Associations and Members: Ensuring Compliance Amid Intensive Federal Scrutiny. Given that I work with many associations, I thought I would post the details. While this particular webinar is US-based, many of the same issues and compliance strategies are the same in Canada. Strafford is also an excellent CLE provider (and no I have not been paid to say that!)
April 24, 2014
Readers of my blog will know that I like competition, a lot. I have also, as have many others, been following (and commenting a little) on the ongoing beer retailing regulation debate going on in Ontario, where I spend a lot of my time. While there has now been a lot written on this issue, and a significant amount of commentary, I thought that this new Sun News video sums up the key issues very well indeed (including key results of competition: price, choice and innovation) and dispels some of the myths being put forward for maintaining the current status quo and concentration in beer retailing in Ontario.
April 20, 2014
Recently I was asked why an association should have a competition compliance program. Sometimes I am asked why a company, association or other organization should have a compliance program. And others, I am asked what a “compliance program is”. These are both very valid questions. Here I thought I would write a short note on the first question (i.e, the “why”).
April 18, 2014
Guest post by Andrei Mincov
(Trademark Factory – reprinted with permission)
As many of you know, the Federal Government recently introduced Bill C-31, the Economic Action Plan 2014, No. 1. Among the changes to almost 40 different pieces of legislation, it introduces many significant and long-awaited changes to the Trade-marks Act.
April 17, 2014
Guest post by John Simpson
(Shift Law – reprinted with permission)
Canada’s Trade-marks Act is about to undergo its most significant amendments since it was first enacted in 1953. Even the spelling of “trade-mark” will change (to “trademark”). Trademark practitioners and their clients should take note of the proposed changes (outlined below) as some will be relevant to trademark selection and prosecution strategy and enforcement decisions that should be made before the changes come into effect.
April 16, 2014
Facebook recently announced some new changes to combat News Feed spam (see: News Feed FYI: Cleaning Up News Feed Spam). In making the announcement, Facebook said:
“The goal of News Feed is to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time so they don’t miss the stories that are important and relevant to them. Today we are announcing a series of improvements to News Feed to reduce stories that people frequently tell us are spammy and that they don’t want to see. Many of these stories are published by Pages that deliberately try and game News Feed to get more distribution than they normally would.”
Do you need contest rules/precedents
for a Canadian contest?
We offer many types of Canadian contest/sweepstakes law precedents and forms (i.e., Canadian contest/sweepstakes law precedents to run common types of contests in Canada). These include precedents for random draw contests (i.e., where winners are chosen by random draw), skill contests (e.g., essay, photo or other types of contests where entrants submit content that is judged to enter the contest or for additional entries), trip contests and more. Also available are individual Canadian contest/sweepstakes precedents, including short rules (“mini-rules”), long rules, winner releases and a Canadian contest law checklist. For more information or to order, see: Canadian Contest Law Forms/Precedents. If you would like to discuss legal advice in relation to your contest or other promotion, contact us: Contact.
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TopDog Social Media has posted a new podcast on social media contests entitled Is Your Social Media Contest Breaking the Law (and thank you TopDog for chatting with me about social media contest laws and rules). Some of the topics discussed in TopDog’s new podcast include:
The 5 most common illegal contest mistakes by businesses running contests online and over social media; Apple’s restrictions on giving away iPads & iPhones; one mistake that cost a business $170,000 in fines; two major components to ensuring your social media contest is legal; some of the basic rules you legally need to include in any contest; some of the legalities surrounding the use of third party materials; a few ways to tell if your advertising may be false or misleading; what you can and can’t legally use information for that you collect in a contest; social networks with the most and least strict policies for contests; some of YouTube’s quirky rule about using entrant information; some of what Facebook expects you to say when you run a contest; how Quebec’s strict rules could provide an opportunity for businesses; and thinking about whether your social media contest is in fact an “illegal lottery”.
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
