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 […]
Patent Prosecution Malpractice: Minimizing the Risk of Claims Read More »
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
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
Alston & Bird Prevails In $10 Million Patent Litigation Malpractice Suit Read More »
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
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.
Appeals Court Rejects Belated Alice Defense, Affirms $8 Million Patent Malpractice Award Read More »
On Wednesday, February 10, 2016, at 2:00 PM EST, I will be participating in a webinar hosted by IPO Chat Channel on Conflicts of Interest in Patent Prosecution in light of the recent decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court in Maling v. Finnegan, Henderson. In Maling, a case of first impression, the court rejected the
IPO Hosting Webinar on Conflicts of Interest in Patent Prosecution Read More »
On December 23, 2015, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued an opinion dismissing a malpractice complaint filed against an IP law firm for failure to state a claim. See Maling v. Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP. A copy of the Massachusetts SJC’s opinion is here. For our previous discussions about the facts and procedural
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
