Harold P. Weinberger heads Kramer Levin’s Advertising Group. He regularly advises clients on prospective advertising and has been lead counsel in the litigation of many false advertising cases under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, representing both plaintiffs and defendants, as well as other complex intellectual property matters at the trial and appellate levels and in arbitrations. Mr. Weinberger has also defended class actions alleging that consumers were defrauded by false advertising claims.

Mr. Weinberger’s recent false advertising matters include his representation of McNeil-PPC, Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson and the manufacturer of Reach^® dental floss, in which he obtained an injunction against Pfizer, Inc., the manufacturer of Listerine^® mouthwash, precluding Pfizer from making false claims that Listerine is "as effective as floss," and requiring Pfizer to cover over labels on product bottles displaying the offending claim. Mr. Weinberger represented AstraZeneca in a false advertising dispute with TAP Pharmaceuticals in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, in which he defeated a preliminary injunction motion seeking to enjoin AstraZeneca’s "Better is Better" comparative advertising campaign for Nexium,^® the country’s best-selling prescription drug. In another recent case, Mr. Weinberger obtained a judgment on behalf of Johnson & Johnson enjoining CIBA Vision Corporation from making false claims comparing its new O₂OPTIX^® contact lens product with ACUVUE^® lenses and also awarding corrective advertising. In addition, following a jury trial, Mr. Weinberger recently obtained a verdict dismissing a complaint of Colgate-Palmolive, Inc. that advertising claims by The Procter & Gamble Company comparing its Crest Whitestrips^® tooth bleaching product to Colgate’s Simply White^® product were false or misleading.

Mr. Weinberger’s cases have generated a good deal of Lanham Act precedent, including three significant appellate court decisions: The Procter & Gamble Company v. Chesebrough-Ponds, Inc., 747 F.2d 114 (2d Cir. 1984); Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corp. v. Richardson-Vicks, Inc., 902 F.2d 222 (3d Cir. 1990) and L&F Products v. The Procter & Gamble Company, 45 F.3d 709 (2d Cir. 1995). Another seminal decision arose from Mr. Weinberger’s successful defense of advertising for the Aleve^® analgesic, American Home Products Corp. v. The Procter & Gamble Company, et al. 871 F. Supp. 739 (D.N.J. 1994). In addition, Mr. Weinberger’s successful prosecution of the first Lanham Act case dealing entirely with detailing of sales representatives for pharmaceutical products resulted in a significant decision, Zeneca Inc. v. Eli Lilly and Company, 1999 WL 509471 (S.D.N.Y. July 19, 1999).

Mr. Weinberger has spoken on issues relating to advertising at cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry legal conferences and at ABA, PLI and other CLE seminars. He has authored numerous publications on the Lanham Act and related false advertising issues. In addition, he is a Lecturer in Law at Columbia University Law School, where he teaches a seminar in false advertising law. Mr. Weinberger has been recognized as one of The Best Lawyers in America in Advertising Law in 2007 and 2008. He is listed in Super Lawyers, a special supplement to The New York Times, in 2006 and 2007, and in Chambers USA – America’s Leading Business Lawyers (2006 and 2007). The 2008 edition of Benchmark: Litigation ranks Mr. Weinberger one of New York's "Litigation Stars."

J.D., magna cum laude, Columbia Law School, 1970

• Notes and Comments Editor, Columbia Law Review, 1969-1970

B.A., City College of the City University of New York, 1967

Honorable Paul R. Hays, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1970 - 1971

New York, 1971
District of Columbia, 1992

U.S. Supreme Court, 1979
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1973
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 1989
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 2002
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 2000
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, 1997
U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York, 1973
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, 1973
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 1973

Teaching
Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School (Seminar in False Advertising Law)

American Bar Association, Section of Intellectual Property Law
The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Member, Committees on: Federal Legislation, 1974-1977;
Product Liability, 1983-1986;
Trademarks and Unfair Competition, 1994-1996