ABSTRACT
Corporate communicators who successfully wend their way through the tangled maze of federal regulations have avoided only a portion of the potential legal pitfalls of their profession. In addition to federal regulations and decades of common law pertaining to commercial speech (discussed in earlier chapters), corporate communicators must be equally aware of numerous obligations and responsibilities defined by federal and state statutory laws as well as industry-specific regulatory agencies. This chapter discusses the unfair competition provisions of the federal Lanham Act and other specific statutes and agencies concerned with commercial speech. Additionally, the chapter explores some common elements of state unfair competition and false advertising laws that should be of particular interest to corporate communicators.
