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 […]
Greenberg Traurig has apparently decided that discretion is the better part of valor. The law firm has agreed voluntarily to withdraw as counsel from a litigation rather than face a disqualification motion in which it was charged with a conflict of interest for trying to invalidate patents it helped prosecute. We previously reported here that
Greenberg Traurig Avoids Former Client’s DQ Motion By Consenting To Withdrawal Read More »
It is Ethics 101 that a law firm cannot use its former client’s confidential information in a substantially related matter on behalf of a different client directly adverse to the former client, at least not without the former client’s informed consent. The reason for this common sense rule, which prohibits “side-switching,” is that a lawyer’s
New Lawsuit Accuses IP Counsel Of Attacking Same Patents It Prosecuted Read More »
“Baby why you hurt me leave me and desert me?” — Foolish (2002) Ashanti A California attorney sued his former law partner for allegedly stealing trade secrets and fraudulent billing practices, in violation of a contract detailing the disbanding of the attorneys’ prior partnership. In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern
Don’t Do Me Like That: IP Lawyer Claims Former Partner Stole Firm Trade Secrets Read More »
On December 26, 2014, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts issued the following Announcement in an appeal pending before the court: ANNOUNCEMENT: The Justices are soliciting amicus briefs. Whether, under Mass. R. Prof. C. 1.7, an actionable conflict of interest arose when, according to the allegations in the complaint, attorneys in different offices of the
