John P. Feldman
John P. Feldman, who joined Reed Smith in 2005, practices in the intellectual property, advertising, marketing, promotion and media law areas in the firm’s Washington office. He came to Reed Smith from Collier Shannon Scott PLLC, where he served as co-chair of the Intellectual Property Group and practiced in that firm’s Advertising and Marketing Law Group.
A magna cum laude undergraduate of Princeton University and a 1990 graduate of Cornell Law School, John also works in trademark, copyright, and right of publicity counseling and litigation, and he frequently represents clients before the National Advertising Division, the nation’s most prominent advertising self-regulatory body. He has worked with advertising and promotion agencies and advertisers from a vast array of industries, from pharmaceuticals to quick-serve restaurants to semi-conductors to hardware products.
Another area of John's practice includes his extensive work with children’s advertising issues, advising clients on promotional practices targeted to children, and he has significant experience before the Children’s Advertising Review Unit.
Well-versed in promotion work, John has written and spoken nationally on topics related to promotion marketing, especially sweepstakes and contests. He has been recognized as one of the few promotions lawyers in the country who regularly clears promotions internationally using a network of highly qualified international associates. He has also chaired several Promotion Marketing Association initiatives concerning the Federal Trade Commission's regulation of advertising and promotion, and is a Director of the Promotion Marketing Association. In addition, John for several years operated a Web forum dedicated to sweepstakes and contests.
Thoughts on Advertising: Advertising is part of brand management. Just like trademark prosecution and protection. Law plays a multifaceted role in brand management. It helps build advertising and it helps stop deception. We use the law to obtain rights to properties that can bring an advertising campaign to life. We use the law to stop competitors from misleading others about their products or services, or about those of our clients. Advertising law is regulatory in nature, and sometimes adversarial. It is subject to broad federal laws and also subject to very provincial guidelines. It touches people at a simple level. Emotionally, psychologically, and commercially.