Everything has moved online, and that includes advertising. Online advertising is not just Google, but Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest of them – even TikTok. All sorts of new legal issues arise, especially with trademarks. I am not a lawyer, nor an expert in trademarks, but I am an online advertising expert witness, and I can help demystify what’s going on in a legal battle.
Fortunes are being spent on advertising online, and it is so easy to offend someone without even thinking about it. Trademarks are a particular issue if someone thinks that you are using one that is the same or similar to his or hers. Or that could even be construed by some to be similar even if many people don’t think that it is.
This is when the writs start flying about, much to the delight of the lawyers who are happy to keep the issue running for as long as possible. They get paid by the hour, and the more hours they put in, the better they like it, so they are in no great hurry to have a case over and done with.
Detailed Work as an Expert Witness in Online Advertising
So then you find yourself in court for the big day – or perhaps days – and whether you are prosecuting or defending you are still going to have to pay your lawyers. So the faster the issue is settled, the better.
However, this is where we have another problem because judges and juries, by and large, don’t understand “online advertising speak”. They don’t understand SEO. In many cases they don’t know what the letters stand for, and even if they do, they don’t understand how Google’s algorithms work. They don’t understand why someone thinks your trademark infringes upon their rights, or why you think someone else’s trademark infringes on yours.
But as an online advertising expert witness, I can appear on your behalf and explain all this stuff to a judge and jury in simple English so that they can understand it. And let’s face it, they are going to have to understand it all in order to come to a decision. And from your point of view, that decision needs to be in your favor.
Part of the problem is that it is so easy to cause offence online without intending to, and even without realizing that you have. For instance, your trademark for your business could be construed to be similar to the trademark used by someone else in a completely different line of business, and by a company that you have never heard of. In fact, probably the first you knew of it was when the writ arrived! This is why you need my help as an online advertising expert witness if you ever get into a legal battle as a result.
