Outsourcing

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Top Three Things IP Practitioners Must Know When Working With Foreign Associates

1 Comment / Foreign Associates, Office of Enrollment and Discipline, Outsourcing, Trademark ethics, Unauthorized Practice of Law, USPTO OED, USPTO Rules of Professional Conduct / By

As we noted in a prior post, the USPTO has gone on record allowing U.S. practitioners to partner with foreign attorneys by way of ownership of law firms, without violating the USPTO Rules of Professional Conduct.  However, practitioners continue to be surprised when they are told that practitioner relationships with foreign associates and agents outside […]

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Practitioner Beware: Outsourcing Patent Applications May Be Illegal

1 Comment / Outsourcing, Patent Ethics / By

I am solicited on an almost daily basis by overseas organizations offering deeply-discounted patent application drafting services.  It may very well be that such services, which typically originate from countries where there is an abundant supply of technically-skilled labor, can offer a competitive product at significant cost savings compared to fees charged by U.S. patent

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Get Out Of Town: The Ethical Perils Of Outsourcing IP Services

3 Comments / Competence, Confidentiality, IP Ethics, Outsourcing, Patent Ethics / By

Many IP lawyers engage other lawyers or nonlawyers as independent contractors, directly or through intermediaries, to provide various legal and nonlegal support services. The outsourcing market, often referred to as the “legal process outsourcing” market or “professional employer organization” market, is a multi-billion dollar industry. While there is nothing per se unethical about a lawyer outsourcing

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