
An ethics blog for IP attorneys
What sounds like the start of a joke is no laughing matter–at least not for two White House attorneys. As widely reported last week, Don McGahn and Ty Cobb, President Trump’s lawyers, were overheard at a popular D.C. restaurant discussing/arguing about a highly confidential matter concerning their client: namely how cooperative The White House should […]
Read MoreFor the past year, Portus Singapore Pte. Ltd. (“Portus”), a former client of the now-defunct Kenyon & Kenyon (“Kenyon”) law firm, has been trying to get a claim for legal malpractice to stick against its former IP counsel. So far, Portus’ efforts have been unsuccessful. On July 28, 2017, Portus took its third bite at […]
Read MoreWhat formal ethics training is required of a U.S. patent agent? None. What minimal level of competency in ethics must a patent agent demonstrate in order to qualify for a license to practice patent law before the USPTO? Again, the answer is “None.” For attorneys, ethics training is of considerable importance. It starts in law […]
Read MoreThe addiction crisis and its impact on the legal profession are the subjects of two recently published articles. The first is The Lawyer, The Addict, published on July 16 in The New York Times (sub. req.). It is a powerful story written by the ex-wife of a Silicon Valley-based IP partner. She recounts her former […]
Read MoreThe statistics of reported cases of domestic violence are stunning. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), 1 in 3 adult women and 1 in 4 adult men have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner. Moreover, 1 in 4 women have been victims of “severe physical violence by […]
Read MoreNon-practicing entities who engage in a pattern of filing numerous lawsuits without any intention of testing the merits, solely to extract low ball settlements, should take note that the USPTO’s Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED) takes a keen interest in such conduct. A recent “exceptional case” decision in a patent case from federal court […]
Read MoreWho 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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