"Congress could readily enlarge its jurisdiction to embrace this territory of what might constitute false and misleading advertising," said William Van Alstyne, a law professor at Duke University.
"If the industry promises parents that it will not market violent material to children and then proceeds to do so, then the industry's practices could constitute false and deceptive advertising".
More than 150 people have lodged official complaints about the atheist ads, but the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that they did not constitute false advertising because they expressed an opinion and "were not capable of objective substantiation".
Gordon and Breach then sued, arguing that the articles were a "cynical promotion" and constituted false advertising.
An antibusiness activist, fronting for trial lawyers, filed a suit against Nike, claiming the company's defense constituted "false advertising" and demanding that Nike be found liable for huge monetary damages.
After vetting the groups' methods, a New Jersey jury determined in June that such strategies were "unsuccessful" and constituted false advertising.
But in a filing on Wednesday with the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, Amazon said the term "app store" has become so generic that its use could not constitute false advertising.
In Austin and another v Metropolitan Police Commissioner, seven hours was considered a sufficient period of time to constitute false imprisonment (although the claim was ultimately rejected due to the circumstances of a potentially hostile crowd of demonstrators).
In 1999, civil rights activist Rosa Parks filed a lawsuit against OutKast for the song "Rosa Parks", claiming that the song used her name without her permission, constituting false advertising and an infringement on her right to publicity, in addition to defamation of character.
