An ethics blog for IP attorneys
Report Slams Ethics Rules on Attorney Advertising As “Outdated” And “Unworkable”
“It is long past time for rationality and uniformity to be brought to the regulation of lawyer advertising,” says the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL) in a comprehensive report released June 22, 2015. The report, which was authored by the APRL’s Regulation of Lawyer Advertising Committee, is the culmination of a two-year study of the ABA Model Rules […]
District Court Tells IP Firm “Don’t Ask Alice,”Confirms $8 Million Malpractice Award For Bungling Patent Application
A federal judge in New York rejected an intellectual property firm’s attempt to rely on the Supreme Court’s 2014 Alice decision as grounds to set aside a jury’s multi-million dollar verdict for mishandling a client’s patent application. In denying post-trial motions, U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen ruled that Virginia law firm Antonelli Terry Sout & Kraus LLP forfeited […]
OED Asserts Allowing Someone Else To Type In Your S-Signature On USPTO Documents Is Unethical
A lawyer’s signature on a document filed in the USPTO represents that, to the best of the signor’s knowledge, formed after a reasonable inquiry, the paper is not being presented for an improper purpose; the claims and other legal contentions are warranted by law; the allegations of fact have evidentiary support; and the denials of […]
IP Litigators Beware: Bad News May Be Hazardous To Your Law License (Part 2 of 2)
Bad news on the doorstep. I couldn’t take one more step. Don McLean – American Pie In the last year, many “bad news” articles have been published arising from IP litigation. Not surprisingly, a growing number of those articles have been based on exceptional case findings and awards of attorneys’ fees under the Octane Fitness […]
IP Litigators Beware: Bad News May Be Hazardous To Your Law License (Part 1 of 2)
Many years ago, before Al Gore invented the internet and teenagers rode their bicycles before dawn, their palms black with ink, to deliver “the paper,” science fiction novelist Douglas Adams observed, “Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.” Truer words today could not be […]
Is OED’s Indefinite Delay In “Reviewing” Reinstatement Applications Constitutional?
An attorney’s suspension from the practice of law is not unlike a jail sentence. Not literally, of course. The suspended attorney is free to do anything they otherwise could do when they were not suspended, with the exception of practicing law. Many practitioners believe that once their suspension period has run its course, the practitioner is “released,” the suspension is automatically lifted, and […]
State Bar Discipline Can Be Hazardous To IP Attorneys’ Right To Practice Before The USPTO (Part 2 of 2)
This is the second of a two-part series on reciprocal discipline in the USPTO. To read the first part click here. Once the notice requirements set forth in Sections 11.24(a) and (b) have been satisfied, Section 11.24(d) dictates the manner in which the disciplinary hearing shall proceed. In accordance with Section 11.24(d), “the USPTO Director shall […]