Our Advertising and Sponsorship Group

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP's Advertising and Sponsorship Group consists of twenty lawyers across Canada providing legal expertise on the advertising, marketing, packaging and labelling of products and services and on the law relating to sponsorship, or the various means of raising the public profile of corporate names, logos and brands.  We have specific experience with issues involving comparative advertising, false/misleading advertising, consumer packaging, contest and lotteries, and trade-mark, trade dress and copyright infringement.

We provide legal services to advertising agencies as well as public and private companies in a variety of different industries (food and beverage, tobacco products, pharmaceutical products, retail, hospitality and resort operation, and financial services among others).  Our lawyers have appeared before various levels of court and regulatory bodies with respect to advertising issues.

We also have expertise in all legal aspects of sponsorship including the negotiation of sponsorship agreements and exclusive advertising and supply agreements.  We regularly provide advice on a variety of issues that arise in the area of sponsorship law including sponsorship fees, sponsorship rights, naming rights, exclusivity clauses, merchandising, promotion, and broadcasting.

We have extensive experience negotiating and drafting strategic business alliance agreements including exclusive advertising and supply agreements, joint marketing arrangements, co-branding agreements, merchandising and promotion agreements, loyalty card program agreements and other strategic business alliances.

Our Services

We provide the following services:

• We review all types of advertising projects to ensure legislative compliance and suggest changes as required.
• We file applications for authorizations and follow up with regulatory authorities such as Industry Canada, the Canadian Advertising Standards Council and the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux, as well as with all other governmental authorities.
• We have developed comprehensive competition law compliance programs for businesses, including in-house seminars and audits for firm clients on various topics such as advertising law, trade-mark law and competition/antitrust law.
• We make representations to obtain the requisite approvals from various regulatory authorities and we seek review of decisions where necessary.
• We ensure that advertising and promotional projects do not infringe upon the trade-marks or other intellectual property of third parties.
• We analyze advertising projects prepared by our clients and by their competitors to ensure legislative compliance.
• We draft and review contest rules, review advertising projects relating to contests and lotteries, review intellectual property issues and file and follow up on notices of holding of contests.
• We review packaging and labelling proposals.  We have been involved with Industry Canada in resolving packaging and labelling issues.  We regularly assist clients with respect to various packaging and labelling issues, often involving issues relevant to trade between the U.S. and Canada.
• We take proceedings to protect our clients against infringement of their rights by competitors.
• We negotiate, draft and/or advise on a wide variety of sponsorship agreements including event sponsorships (such as the Commonwealth Games and Les Jeux de la Francophonie), naming rights agreements and venue based sponsorship agreements.
• We represent venue-based clients such as convention centres, stadiums and resorts, as well as universities, private companies and government with respect to all aspects of sponsorship.
• We negotiate and prepare strategic business alliance agreements including exclusive marketing and supply agreements, joint promotion and marketing agreements, co-branding agreements, merchandising and promotion agreements, loyalty card program agreements and other strategic business alliances, often between our clients and their largest suppliers.

Our Experience

Representative transactions include:

• Long term multi-million dollar sponsorship and supply agreements between universities and colleges in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Québec, with cold beverage manufacturers and other suppliers
• Loyalty program agreements, including a loyalty program agreement between one of Canada's largest retailers and Canada's largest airline.
• Joint marketing and promotion agreements between municipal and provincial tourism associations and their strategic corporate "partners" and members.
• Conference centre and other naming rights agreements.
• Venue based sponsorship and supply agreements for B.C. Place Stadium, Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, Tradex and other event venues.
• Strategic marketing alliances, supply and sponsorship agreements for Canada's premiere resort owner/operator.
• Advising clients in connection with events and event based sponsorships such as the Commonwealth Games, Les Jeux de la Francophonie, Expo 86 and the Olympics.
• Ongoing representation of local, national and international sponsorship and advertising agencies.
• Representative clients include JTI-Macdonald, Future Shop, Cathay Pacific Airlines, Hewlett-Packard, Loblaws, New Balance, Motts North America, Frost Brown Todd LLC, Pharmacia Canada, Intrawest, B.C. Pavilion Corporation, B.C. Place Stadium, Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, as well as universities and colleges across the country.
• We regularly negotiate and draft agreements for our clients with companies such as Nike, Inc., Coca-Cola Bottling Company, The Pepsi Bottling Group (Canada), Co., Telus, Air Canada, Bayer Inc., General Motors of Canada Ltd., IBM Canada Ltd., The North Face Inc., Bell Canada, The Perrier Group of Canada, AT&T and many others.