Patent Malpractice

Patent Prosecution Malpractice: Minimizing the Risk of Claims

Malpractice in patent prosecution can be an expensive (very expensive) and time-consuming proposition. Defense costs alone can run well into the seven figures. No patent prosecutor or law firm wants to face that kind of exposure. On February 21, 2019, I will be presenting a 90-minute CLE webinar hosted by Strafford on best practices for […]

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Finnegan Henderson Committed Legal Malpractice By Favoring Marking Blade Inventor Over Corporate Patent Client: Lawsuit

Who is an IP firm’s patent prosecution client when the firm represents a limited liability company and one of its members is the sole inventor?  Does the answer change if the LLC is never actually formed, and no one ever advises the law firm?  Those are just two questions that appear to be at the

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Alston & Bird Prevails In $10 Million Patent Litigation Malpractice Suit

On January 26, 2017, a New York state appeals court panel affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a $10 million malpractice complaint filed against Alston & Bird LLP.  The court held that the complaint filed by Alston’s former client, high-tech fabric maker Brookwood Cos., Inc., failed to state a plausible claim that Brookwood would have

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IP Firm Tees Up Dismissal Of Subject Matter Conflict, Negligent Patent Prosecution Malpractice Case

A recent patent malpractice action filed in federal court in New York against an IP firm raises once again the issue of subject matter conflicts between concurrent clients in prosecuting patent applications in a similar field of technology.  The issue of subject matter conflicts in concurrent patent representation continues to be an area of significant

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Appeals Court Rejects Belated Alice Defense, Affirms $8 Million Patent Malpractice Award

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected yesterday a now defunct Virginia IP firm’s attempt to rely on 35 U.S.C. § 101 and the Supreme Court’s Alice decision as a defense to an $8 million damages award arising from the firm’s negligence in handling a client’s patent application. Protostorm, LLC v.

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Texas Court Upholds Baker Botts Patent Malpractice Win

A Dallas appeals court has upheld a trial court’s ruling in favor of Baker Botts, L.L.P. on its former client’s claim for patent malpractice based on the firm’s simultaneous representation of two clients in the same technical field. See Axcess International, Inc. v. Baker Botts, L.L.P., No. 05-14-01151-CV (Tex. App.–Dallas Mar. 24, 2016) (mem. op.)

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Should A U.S. Federal Court Hear A Foreign Patent Malpractice Case Arising Under Foreign Law?

“What do you mean ‘my patent lapsed?’ You said You Were Going To Pay The Maintenance Fees.” – Anonymous Client The failure to pay a maintenance fee when you agreed to do so can be a lawyer’s worst nightmare.  The nightmare can be made even worse when, according to the patent owner, the patented technology is so

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Law Firms Tell Mass. Supreme Court No Subject Matter Conflict In Patent Prosecution Unless Claims “Identical” Or “Mere Obvious Variants”

On August 20, 2015, eleven law firms filed a joint amicus brief in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in Maling v. Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner.  In Maling, the Massachusetts high court requested amicus briefing on whether Finnegan Henderson’s concurrent representation of two different clients who were allegedly seeking patent protection at the

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