How Commercial Contract Lawyers Can Elevate Your Marketing Strategy

With the ability to protect the rights of both businesses and consumers, the importance of a commercial contract lawyer in any industry cannot be emphasized enough. In the context of business, marketing agreements often include clauses that are beyond the basic purpose of marketing goods/services. The various purposes of a marketing contract can include the protection of creative assets, copyright protections, royalties, use of intellectual property, indemnification and more. For this reason, almost every marketing agreement utilizes a promotional strategy that is legally binding. A commercial contract lawyer will ensure that the legal framework of a marketing strategy does not affect the long term goals of a business. Building a company’s brand through a strategic plan that is not legally binding can threaten its position in the competitive industry.

For example, the involvement of a commercial contract lawyer can prevent a brand from losing out on profits by making sure the use of advertisements do not negatively impact the rights of other brands or the integrity of the original brand. If your brand is planning a promotional campaign in which its name and/or trademarks are used by a third party, the original brand loses its ownership and profit of its strategically developed brand name or trademarks. A commercial contract lawyer will implement a contract that clearly demonstrates the intent of a brand and the rights of third parties, whether it is to use a trademark, make a profit or a combination of both. By working with a commercial contract lawyer on your next promotional campaign, the risk of your brand not benefiting from the campaign is significantly reduced.

The reputation of a business directly correlates with its promotional efforts, especially if it is an international brand whose target market utilizes social media. A business should be wary of its advertising strategies, especially since there are countless examples of international brands who have faced a legal issue because of their promotional campaigns. For example, Rolling Stone found itself in a legal battle with the family of a doctor who was murdered while attending a Rolling Stone event in Thailand. Doctors Without Borders was one of the sponsors of the event and the charity had received negative feedback because of its association with Rolling Stone, even though Rolling Stone donated part of the money made from the event to the charity. The family of the doctor argued that Rolling Stone exploited the charitable cause and used it to profit off the back of innocent victims, including their late family member.

A commercial contract lawyer would have been able to assess the legal risks associated with the promotions led by Rolling Stone by analyzing the potential outcome of the conjoined event. This would have helped Rolling Stone to mitigate the risks of being a part of or hosting such events in the future. Given that most businesses today rely on marketing/advertising campaigns to build their brand equity, it’s important to ensure that the various roles of a commercial contract lawyer are utilized to develop better marketing strategies. The four major roles that are key to any marketing campaign include: Ensuring that the commercial contract lawyer is involved in the development of a marketing strategy is imperative since they will significantly minimize the risk of a promotional campaign which aims to increase the equity of a brand.

For more information on the importance of legal considerations in marketing, you can visit USA.gov.