Overview
While rights to forms of intellectual property such as trade marks, designs and copyright are important to marketing and brand strategy, many other laws and forms of regulation affect this area. We have a number of legal experts who advise on issues relating to branding, marketing, advertising and product promotion, including both commercial and contentious issues.

Regulation of claims made in advertisements and marketing materials is increasing. Bodies such as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission can enforce fines of up to $1.1 million for infringement of the consumer protection provisions of the Trade Practices Act. When providing advice in this area, we aim to help clients understand their legal obligations and to implement processes and protocols to minimise the risk of a contravention occurring. We utilise technology and education programs to achieve this aim. We regularly work with Freehills' legal risk management practice to apply technology tools and risk management strategies to our clients' businesses.

When advertising and marketing products or services we assist our clients in:

• drafting and negotiating advertising and sponsorship agreements
• providing advertising copy review, including advising in relation to comparative advertising, misleading and deceptive advertising and unauthorised use of personalities
• ensuring that sufficient notification of clients' IP rights is provided. Often this is achieved through the production of manuals or training programs.

In addition to laws regulating advertising there are a multitude of laws which prescribe specific labelling requirements for certain products. We appreciate the difficulty in not only understanding how these laws affect an individual product line but in ensuring adherence. Given the various ways that product and marketing information is provided to consumers (eg on the product itself, on swing tags, labels, packaging and flyers and in advertisements and marketing campaigns), it is important that our advice not only outlines the client's legal obligations but provides the framework for them to consider the accuracy and appropriateness of their product and marketing information. We often utilise technology tools for this purpose.

We assist with other aspects of product promotion including advising on product recall procedures, product liability issues, anti-counterfeiting and parallel importation strategies.