Affiliate Attorney

Affiliate Marketers: The "killer app" requires diligence up-front

The Law of PPC Advertising: Are You Being Ripped Off?

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View John Dozier's blog entries on recent developments in the law of affiliates:

• Dozier Internet Law Blog on Spam Liability for Affiliate Misconduct.
• Dozier Internet Law Blog on New Affiliate Marketing Laws.
• Dozier Internet Law Blog on Affiliate Misconduct.

Affiliate Attorney Guidance and Advice

Affiliate programs are one of the most powerful marketing and sales tools on the Web. They are also one of the higher-risk ventures you can undertake. If you are a web business, affiliate programs need to be managed very carefully because there are many, many issues that arise. You should always consult with an affiliate attorney before starting up a program. If you are planning on participating in a clearinghouse affiliate network, care must be taken working with your affiliate attorney to make sure you avoid liability for the acts of affiliates with whom you have no direct contract. Here are some examples of cases we have handled:

• Our client's affiliate was spamming and our client got sued by AOL.
• Google sued our advertiser/affiliate client in the first Adsense fraud case.
• Affiliates were spamming and our client was sued by Microsoft.
• Our client was sued for trademark infringement because an affiliate was using a competitor's trademark in a redirect page to increase Google rankings.
• Affiliates of a competing merchant site were using trademark terms of our client while pay per click marketing for competitors.
• Affiliates were losing a month's commissions by affiliate program clearinghouses for alleged technical contract violations while it appeared refunds were not being returned to merchants out of the affiliate accounts.
• Our client's affiliates were defaming competitors on chat boards and in forums in order to drive traffic to its own site.
• Our client found numerous duplicate landing pages of its homepage site content being used by affiliates selling competing products, complete with the same meta tags.
• Our client was the subject of "click attacks" emanating from affiliate marketers of a major competitor.
• A merchant changed its terms of use in midstream of our affiliate marketing client's MLM deployment after promising that our client could proceed as it planned.

Whether you are accused of misconduct through your affiliates' actions, or are accusing an affiliate and sponsoring merchant of misconduct, a Dozier Internet Law affiliate attorney can help. And if you need to protect yourself from affiliate misconduct, a good affiliate attorney will assist you with contracts, due diligence, and ongoing compliance. At Dozier Internet Law, we can tell you what to look out for, help you create a contract and a compliance program, and help you protect your company's assets while you maximize the opportunities for growing your business.

Affiliate Attorney: Free Consultation

We offer a free consultation to qualified prospective clients seeking an affiliate attorney.