Jackie Dinsmore from Cognition LLP discusses legal IP and advertising fundamentals for entrepreneurs.

1. A Legal IP & Advertising Primer for
Entrepreneurs
Presented by:
Jacqueline Dinsmore
Cognition LLP

2. IP Protection
Trademarks
• Trademarks: words, logos or symbols that identify your products or services and
distinguish them from those of others.
• Should be distinctive and not descriptive or it may be objected to
• Must be in use to maintain registration
• Search www.uspto.gov and www.ic.gc.ca (as well as NUANS and google search)
• You develop trademark rights just from usage in advertising and selling the related product
or service
• Mark any usage with a TM
• Registration is not necessary, but gives you rights across the country, can give indefinite
ownership, allows enforcement over social media channels (e.g. Twitter) and provides
clearer ownership ®
• Ensure that you develop and enforce trademark usage guidelines
• Registration - $1500 - $2500 plus more for international

3. General Advertising Principles
• Any time a claim is made in an ad that
might “reasonably be taken as true”
must be substantiated

4. Examples
• “Our school has a class ratio of 10 students for
every teacher”
• “We were ranked #1 in Grade 3 mathematics in
Halton County”
• “90% of parents would prefer to send their
children to private school, if they could afford it.”
• “Our teachers are the best teachers in the GTA’
• “99% of Pinewood students are accepted into
University”

5. Puffery
• An exception to the requirement to substantiate
is when the claim is so outlandish that a
consumer would not reasonably rely upon the
claim or believe it to be true
• The test- “Would a reasonable person rely upon
the representation?’
• Example: “We are the best school in the entire
universe.”
• Example: “Our teaching works wonders”

6. Advertiser’s Opinion
• A claim that consists solely of an advertisers
opinion also does not require substantiation
• If a company says its products are “good”, the
consumer knows that he or she is relying only
on the company’s opinion of its products.
• However, don’t disguise a fact as an opinion.
Example: “We think our vacuum cleaner is
twice as powerful as the competition’s.”

7. Tactics to Deal with Unsubstantiated
Claims
• The Weasel Claim- “Our detergent leaves dishes
virtually spotless”
• The Unfinished Claim- “ABC gives you more”
• The We’re Unique Claim- “If it doesn’t say Downy,
it can’t be Downy”
• The Water is Wet Claim- “Our mascara greatly
increases the diameter of every lash”
• The So What Claim- “Our soup has not one, but
two beef stocks”

8. Comparative Advertising
• 4 out of 5 customers prefer Pepsi to Coca Cola
Be Careful!
- Get legal input before making comparisons
- There may be special trademark rules if you use a
competitors name
- Don’t rely on stale data
- Don’t underestimate the potential damage of a
comparative claim gone bad!

9. Who Are We?
• Bay street senior counsel (average 15 years of experience)
(Blakes, Torys, Stikemans etc.)
• Former In House lawyers (e.g. Canadian Tire, RIM, Nortel, Sun
Microsystems, CBC, Pepsico, Hewlett Packard, Deloitte etc.)
• 1/3 to ½ the cost of traditional counsel due to the way we have
stripped overhead
• 36 lawyers -located in Toronto, Ottawa & Calgary
• Servicing over 400 companies, institutions and organizations
• An outside firm that behaves like in-house counsel
• Available on a flexible/customizable basis
• Integrated with your team

10. Need Help? Please give us a shout!
• Jacqueline Dinsmore
• 416-882-1977 (cell)
• jdinsmore@cognitionllp.com
• www.cognitionllp.com