The Advertising Law Blog provides commentary and news on developing legal issues in advertising, promotional marketing, Internet, and privacy law. This blog is sponsored by the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions group at Olshan. The practice is geared to servicing the needs of the advertising, promotional marketing, and digital industries with a commitment to providing personal, efficient and effective legal service.
In August 2025, in its continuing efforts to curtail fraudulent trademark filings, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) terminated over 52,000 fraudulent trademark applications that were all filed by one firm alone, issuing sanctions against it. As fraudsters only get more clever, the USPTO is fighting back with modern technology, adding yet another level of verification for trademark filers requiring additional identity verification.
Andrew Lustigman, Chair of Olshan's Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Brand Management & Protection Group, was featured in the Financier Worldwide POWER PLAYERS: Advertising & Marketing 2025 - Distinguished Advisers report. The report includes a Q&A with Andy wherein he discusses some of the standout moments in his career, the importance of mentoring younger colleagues and the values that he believes are essential for building strong and trusting relationships with clients.
Olshan’s Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Group has won the 2025 Media Law International Award for Law Firm of the Year. Honoring excellence across the legal practice, this award celebrates firms that demonstrate outstanding expertise and leadership and continue to elevate standards across the profession. The MLI Law Firm of the Year Award is based on the rigorous research of a leading independent publisher with a singular focus on media law, covering 60 jurisdictions worldwide. MLI’s qualitative approach involves extensive evaluation of law-firm capabilities, including market presence and sector specialization.
A federal lawsuit challenging the state of Texas’ recent expansion of telemarketing regulations to include text messages has ended with a stipulation of settlement that applies a more limited scope of the registration requirement for SMS marketing programs. This blog has previously covered this issue as businesses were vexed by the dilemma of whether or not registration as a telemarketer in Texas was required under a confusingly worded new state law known as SB 140.
New York’s Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act is now in effect (as of November 10, 2025). (Read our coverage of the law in our June 25, 2025 Advertising Law Blog post.) Originally enacted in May as part of the state’s 2025-2026 omnibus budget bill, the law's effective date was delayed due to a failed legal challenge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by the National Retail Federation, who alleged that the Act’s mandatory disclosure requirement violated the First Amendment and sought a preliminary injunction.
On October 13, 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law the nation’s first statute aimed at regulating “companion chatbots,” which are AI systems that simulate human-like relationships with their users. The new law, which has been added to California’s Business & Professions Code, sets out disclosure, safety, and reporting requirements. Users who suffer harm from a violation of this law now have a private right of action that allows them to seek at least $1,000 per violation plus attorney’s fees. The law will take effect on January 1, 2026.
Andrew Lustigman, Chair of Olshan's Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Group and Co-Chair of the firm’s Brand Management & Protection Group, and Branding Department associate Morgan Spina published an article in New York Law Journal entitled “Continued Focus on Subscription-Based Practices Leads to $2.5 Billion Amazon Settlement With FTC.”
On September 1, 2025, Texas Senate Bill 140 (“SB 140”) expanded the state’s telemarketing law to cover text messaging under Chapter 302 of the Texas Business & Commerce Code. Previously, these rules primarily applied to telephone calls, but SB 140 was designed to include unwanted or “spam” text messages. Critical to businesses that use text messaging for marketing purposes, SB 140’s broad language appears to expose such businesses to burdensome registration and bonding requirements, even if the businesses limit their marketing texts to consumers who have opted in voluntarily. This uncertainty prompted a same-day legal challenge in federal court, filed by Flux Footwear, Postscript, and the Ecommerce Innovation Alliance (EIA).
Amazon’s recent massive $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) regarding its Prime subscription model is a game-changer with respect to the exposure for difficult cancellation paths. It is also a strong reminder that the FTC, under Commissioner Ferguson and the Trump/Vance administration, intends to enforce the consumer protection laws in effect.