Blog Posts: Retail Law Advisor
Visit the Full BlogThis blog keeps you connected to timely developments and emerging issues in retail law and covers a wide range of topics related to the retail, restaurant and consumer industry. We invite you to learn more about Goulston & Storrs and our Retail, Restaurant & Consumer Group.
Airbnb Slashes Boston Inventory to Meet New Requirements
The number of Airbnb listings in Boston has been cut in half due to local ordinances regulating the operation of short-term rentals. Boston is not the only city pushing back on Airbnb, a company that is battling local city governments across the country while simultaneously addressing concerns about safety...
The Nightmare Before Christmas?
Gift Card Litigation Arrives for the Holidays
It is a little-known fact that, in 1994, Blockbuster video was the first store to display pre-paid gift cards for sale. Unlike VHS rentals, the gift card industry has only grown in popularity. Gift cards from major retailers are at the top of many holiday wish lists. Considered a...
A Hometown Affair: Boston Hosts INTA 2019 Annual Meeting
Last week, members of the Goulston & Storrs intellectual property practice group joined over 11,000 attendees from around the world for the 141 st Annual Meeting of the International Trademark Association (INTA). For us it was a hometown affair, with Boston hosting a diverse group of brand owners, legal...
Bag Bans: The War on Plastic Bags
Grocery shoppers used to make the final decision of their supermarket trip in the checkout line. Reaching for boxes of cereal, cartons of eggs, and jars of jam in their rolling metal carts, placing those items onto slow-moving counter conveyor belts, they weighed two options. Paper or plastic? Which...
New Payment Structures for a New Age
We’ve written about changes in the way goods are bought and sold, from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce. But what about how goods are being paid for? As the retail landscape shifts to digital terrain, retailers would be wise to think about how they accept payments to suit new ways of...
2018 Holiday Sales
We hope everyone had a terrific holiday season and the new year is off to a great start! In our first post for the year, we wanted to share some terrific insights on 2018 holiday sales analytics from Retail Dive’s Kaarin Vembar . U.S. holiday sales grew 5.1% this...
Not Just Fun and Games: The Demise of Toys "R" Us, Inc. and the Changing Face of Retail
This year marks the first Christmas in modern memory without Toys "R" Us, Inc. The loss of the international toy seller leaves billions of dollars in toy sales up for grabs, and its slow and steady decline may serve as a catalyst for retailers to evolve and stay relevant...
Year-End Trademark Audits Ensure Complete Brand Protection
With the end of the year approaching and the holiday shopping season in full swing, now is an ideal time for brand owners to audit their trademark portfolios. A trademark audit is an excellent tool for ensuring brands are adequately protected for the full scope of goods and services...
Counterfeits in the Digital Marketplace
Counterfeiting has moved beyond high-priced luxury goods to low-cost everyday items. Many of these fake products pose real dangers: face masks with arsenic ; phone adapters that can electrocute you ; computer chargers that fry your hardware ; batteries that blow up . These counterfeits infiltrate online marketplaces, where...
One Wild Ride: The Rise of Dockless Bike Share Programs
Bike shares have been around for several years, but the newest iteration of the two-wheeled trend is causing concern among local government officials and citizens alike. Beyond questions of profitability and durability, dockless transit share models raise questions about what the future of commerce looks like. Dockless bikes and...
A World of Trademarks at INTA 2018 Annual Meeting in Seattle
During the week of May 20, 2018, members of the Goulston & Storrs Intellectual Property Group joined over 10,500 attendees from around the world for the 140th Annual Meeting of the International Trademark Association (INTA). Held in Seattle, Washington, the INTA 2018 Annual Meeting attracted an incredibly diverse group of...
No More Lifetime Guarantees – The Importance of a Balanced Return Policy
In February 2018, L.L. Bean made the tough decision to change its lifetime return policy , which had been in existence for over a century. Following the policy change, the company received backlash from its customers , with many of them voicing their frustrations on twitter. One user tweeted...
Credit Card Evolution: Goodbye John Hancock
For years, the signature requirement for completing a credit card transaction has felt something like an obsolete means of confirming a user’s identity . Effective this month, however, four of the country’s largest credit card providers: American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa, will no longer require a signature to...
No Relief in Sight from Website Accessibility Lawsuits
In February 2017, we reported on a surge in website accessibility lawsuits brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). This litigation trend has accelerated over the past year and shows no signs of slowing down . Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination against disabled persons in places...
Rise of the Drones: Flying Over Newton and Registration Requirements Reinstated
The skies are a little friendlier for drones now that the Dutch police have suspended their squad of drone-hunting eagles . This is also great news for retailers, as drone popularity continues to soar with overall electronics sales . With more advanced technologies available to consumers and drones rapidly...
Looking Inside the Mind of a Gen Z Shopper
As the 2017 holiday season nears, consumers are getting ready to open their wallets and retailers are hoping their promotions will attract those consumers. Generation Z (“Gen Z”), which includes young people born in the mid-1990s to mid-2000s, is an important but often forgotten portion of the consumer population...
America’s Next Top (Business) Model? Evaluating Fashion’s Big Experiment
Last year, scores of top fashion designers defied convention by abandoning traditional shipping schedules, which favored delivering collections four to six months after they appeared on Fashion Week runways, and moved instead to a system allowing designers the ability to give the “insta-generation” instant retail gratification. Faced with the...
Is Artificial Intelligence the Key to Retail Survival?
In light of the sea change in the current retail landscape, which was punctuated by the recent acquisition of Whole Foods by Amazon , retailers today are forced to ask themselves: How will we combat disruption in our industry by giants like Amazon and its few peers? To what...
Class Action Lawsuits on the Rise under New Jersey’s Consumer Protection Laws – Which Retailers Will Be Targeted Next?
Does your retail business conduct sales online? For most retailers today, the answer is likely yes. This means that the recent surge of class action lawsuits against merchants arising out of a consumer protection law in New Jersey called the Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act (TCCWNA) merits your...
Supreme Court Says ‘Give Me a ©’ to the Fashion Industry
A recent U.S. Supreme Court copyright decision analyzing cheerleader uniforms may have a profound impact on retailers, and on the fashion industry in particular. On March 22, 2017, the Supreme Court held in Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc. that original design elements that are separable from the...
Copyright Compliance: (Re-)Register Your DMCA Agent in 2017 to Keep Your Website Docked in the Safe Harbor
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) “safe harbor” provisions shield certain online service providers from copyright infringement liability arising from content posted by users on their website. Provided that the service provider registers its DMCA agent and complies with the other statutory requirements , the service provider may encourage...
FTC Publishes Data Breach Response Guidelines
Whether resulting from a planned cyberattack or mere carelessness, data breaches are on the rise. In 2015, 781 data breaches were reported across the United States, with the average breach costing $3.8 million. In 2016, the total number of breaches is projected to increase, with the average cost per...
Paid Celebrity Endorsements in Social Media: The FTC Is Watching
How much trust do you place in celebrities who endorse products on social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube? Do you stop to consider whether they are compensated for their efforts and, if so, how much? Studies have shown, for example, that influencers who have...
“In-Season Relevancy” Is in Season this September
The fashion industry is at a crossroads. Designers must decide whether to continue the age-old tradition of previewing their collections during Fashion Week four to six months before they are available in stores (with fall looks shown in February and spring looks shown in September), or buck tradition in...
RETAIL 2020: Future Ready – Innovate to Succeed
In late June, members of the local and national retail community convened at Goulston & Storrs’ Boston office to participate in an interactive panel discussion billed as RETAIL 2020: Future Ready. Panelists included Ben Fischman, the Executive Director of M. Gemi, a designer and retailer of Italian hand-made footwear; Nicki...
Retailers Take Notice: Will Customers .shop at Your .store?
Have you thought about establishing a new distinctive web address for your business? Do you worry that someone else may try to register your brand name within one of the new generic top level domains (gTLDs)? Whether consciously or not, many retailers have been sitting on the sidelines during...
Revamping the Runway-to-Retail Model
With the increase in digital coverage of Fashion Week , from live streams to Snapchat stories and Instagram postings, designers have put what might be considered the most coveted and exclusive ticket in town directly in the hands of consumers. During the most recent New York Fashion Week (“NYFW&rdquo...
The Skies Are Alive With the Sound Of Drones: The FAA Implements Drone Registration Requirements
It happened again—another incident involving an errant drone and a resident from the Garden State. As reported by various news sources, a New Jersey man attempted to photograph the Empire State Building with his drone. He was arrested on reckless endangerment charges after crashing the drone into this iconic building...
Website and Mobile App Accessibility: The DOJ Kicks the Can
In a previous post , we wrote about Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) as it applies to businesses’ public websites and mobile apps. At the time of our last writing, it was expected that the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) would publish its proposed...
Sustainability in Retail: Going Strong and Expected to Continue
The COP21 meeting has been underway for the last week, with just a few more days left to go. The meeting, an annual session which started following the 1992 United Nations Framework on Climate Change, brings together businesses, policymakers and other thought leaders to advance an important conversation on...
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