This chapter discusses several key legal issues that public relations professionals must be aware of, including defamation, privacy rights, copyright, trademark laws, and regulations from government agencies. It emphasizes the importance of working closely with lawyers to avoid legal problems and liability, while also managing public perception. Public relations statements must be carefully reviewed by legal counsel to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

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Public Relations:
Strategies and Tactics
11th Edition, Global Edition
Dennis L. Wilcox Glen T. Cameron Bryan H. Reber
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Chapter 12
Laws and Applications

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Chapter 12 Objectives
 Identify which government agencies regulate the
commercial speech used by public relations
professionals
 Explain how public relations professionals can
work effectively with lawyers
 Describe what public relations professionals
need to know about defamation, employee and
privacy rights, copyright, and trademark laws
 Understand the key issues surrounding freedom
of speech and public relations

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A Sampling of
Legal Problems
 Public relations
personnel must be
aware that they can
be held legally liable if
they provide advice or
tacitly support an
illegal activity of a
client or employer
 This area of liability is
called conspiracy

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A Sampling of
Legal Problems, cont.
 As a public relations person, you can be named
as a coconspirator with organizational officials if
you
 Participate in illegal action
 Counsels policy behind illegal action
 Take a major personal part in the illegal action
 Establishes a “front group”
 Cooperate in any way with illegal action

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Libel and Defamation
 A written falsehood is libel; a spoken falsehood
is slander
 Both are called defamation by the courts
 Private citizens tend to have more success
winning defamation suits than do public figures
or corporations
 With public figures, there is the extra test of whether
the libelous statements were made with actual malice

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Libel and Defamation, cont.
 A person filing a libel
suit must prove that
 The false statement
was communicated to
others
 The person is
identifiable
 There was actual
injury
 The statement was
malicious or negligent
 Avoiding libel suits
 Opinion statements
must be accompanied
by the facts
 Clearly label
statements of opinion
 Review context of
opinion for possible
legal implications
 The fair comment
defense

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Invasion of Privacy
 Public relations staff must be particularly
sensitive to the issue of privacy
 4 main areas of concern
 Employee communication
 Photo releases
 Product publicity and advertising
 Media inquiries about employees

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Invasion of Privacy, cont.
 Employee communication
 Keep focus on organization-related activities
 Have employees submit “personals” in writing
 Double-check information for accuracy
 Ask whether someone might be embarrassed
 Don’t rely on secondhand information
 Don’t include racial or ethnic designations of
employees

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Invasion of Privacy, cont.
 Photo Releases
 Get signed releases
 Consider financial
compensation
 Added precautions
 Store photos
electronically
 Date them
 Give context
 Product Publicity
and Advertising
 Legal action can be
major downside to
not following photo
release procedures
in your campaigns

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Invasion of Privacy, cont.
 Media Inquiries about Employees
 DO provide
 Confirmation of
employment
 Title and job
description
 Start and termination
dates of employment
 Do NOT provide
 Salary
 Home address
 Marital status
 Number of children
 Organizational
memberships
 Job performance

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Copyright Law
 Knowledge of
copyright law is
important from two
perspectives
 What organizational
materials should be
copyrighted
 How correctly to utilize
the copyrighted
materials of others
 Protection of a
creative work from
unauthorized use
 Authorship is defined
in 7 categories
 Literary works
 Musical works
 Dramatic works
 Pantomimes and
choreographic works
 Pictorial, graphic, or
sculptural works
 Motion pictures
 Sound recordings

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Copyright Law, cont.
 Fair Use vs. Infringement
 Fair use means part of copyrighted article may be
used based on
 Purpose and character of use
 Nature of the copyrighted work
 Relative amount of work used
 Effect of use on potential market value of work
 Use in promotional/advertising work typically
infringement
 Government works cannot be copyrighted
 In the public domain

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Copyright Law, cont.
 Photography and art work
 The rights of freelance writers
 Copyright issues on the Internet
 The downloading of material
 The uploading of material
 Copyright guidelines
 See pp. 310-311

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Trademark Law
 A trademark is a word,
symbol, or slogan, used
singly or in combination,
that identifies a product’s
origin
 It also serves as an
indicator of quality
 A service mark is like a
trademark, but it
designates a service
rather than a product

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Trademark Law, cont.
 The protection of trademarks
 Three basic guidelines
 Trademarks are proper adjectives and should be
capitalized and followed by a generic noun or phrase
 Trademarks should not be pluralized or used in the
possessive form
 Trademarks are never verbs

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Trademark Law, cont.
 The problem of trademark infringement
 Misappropriation of personality
 Result from the unauthorized use of well-known public figures in
publicity and advertising materials
 Deceased celebrities also protected
 The right of publicity gives celebrities the sole ability to cash in
on their fame

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Regulations by Government
Agencies
 The promotion of
products and services
fall under the doctrine
of commercial speech
 States and the federal
government have
passed legislation
that regulates
commercial speech

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Regulations by Government
Agencies, cont.
 Guidelines have been established by major
government agencies
 Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
 Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
 Other federal regulatory agencies
 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

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Corporate Speech
 Commercial speech doesn’t have the same
First Amendment protection as other forms of
speech
 The government may regulate advertising
that is
 False
 Misleading
 Deceptive
 Promoting unlawful goods and services

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Employee Speech in the
Digital Age
 Employee email
 Surfing the
Internet
 Employee blogs

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Liability for
Sponsored Events
 Public relations personnel often focus on the
planning and logistics of an event
 You must also take steps to protect the
organization from liability and possible lawsuits

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The Attorney/Public Relations
Relationship
 Must work together to not only win in the court of
law but also in “the court of public opinion”
 Six keys to winning in both arenas
 Make carefully planned public comment in the earliest
stages
 Understand the perspective of lawyers and allow
them to review statements
 Guard against providing information to the other side
 Counsel and coach the legal team
 Build support from other interested parties
 Develop a litigation communication team before you
need it