USPTO ethics

Narrow Scope of “Patent Agent Privilege” Creates Ethical Traps for the Unwary

Leave a Comment / IP Ethics, Office of Enrollment and Discipline, Patent Agent, Patent Ethics, Unauthorized Practice of Law / By

The Federal Circuit’s 2-1 decision yesterday in In re Queen’s University at Kingston resolved a split in the district courts over whether a “patent agent”-client privilege exists independent from the attorney-client privilege. The majority held it does. While the court’s holding provides clarification in this case of first impression, patent agents, their law firm employers, […]

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Caveat IP Lawyer – Beware The Office of Enrollment and Discipline Violating The USPTO’s Reciprocal Discipline Rules

Leave a Comment / OED, Office of Enrollment and Discipline, PTO Ethics Decisions, Reciprocal Discipline / By

At first glance, the USPTO’s most recently published disciplinary decision seems relatively bland and altogether innocuous. The case of In re Juliet M. Oberding, Proceeding No. D2016-06 (USPTO Dir. Feb. 12, 2016) involves a California-based trademark attorney who told a client on several occasions, over the course of roughly 18 months, that the client’s trademark

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IP Attorney Challenging Constitutionality Of USPTO OED’s “Abusive” Ethics Investigation

1 Comment / OED, Office of Enrollment and Discipline, USPTO Ethics Investigation, USPTO OED / By

An IP attorney has filed a lawsuit against the United States Patent and Trademark Office seeking to prohibit the Agency’s Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED) from continuing to investigate him for alleged ethics violations because the process employed in conducting the ethics investigation is abusive and violates due process. The complaint, which was filed

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CAFC Muzzles Attorneys’ Appeal From Terminating Sanctions In Patent Case

Leave a Comment / District Court Litigation, IP Litigation Sanctions / By

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled it lacked jurisdiction to hear an appeal of an order imposing terminating sanctions in a patent case based upon trial counsels’ conduct in misleading the court about evidence of an on-sale bar.  The Federal Circuit ruled that because the parties

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Tales From The OED Crypt: Using Forged Document To Trick Witness Can Get Counsel Treated To Discipline

1 Comment / Discipline, Patent Attorney Disciplinary Matters, Patent Litigation Ethics, USPTO Decisions / By

Lawyers often are accused of playing “tricks” in litigation. For those who are familiar with trial tactics, the “trick” label is usually nothing more than legal “tradecraft” – the techniques of experienced litigators to weave a story through a combination of arguments, documents, and witness testimony. Pretending to read from a document while asking a

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USPTO Suspends Former GWU Ethics Professor For Two Years

Leave a Comment / Discipline, IP Ethics, Reciprocal Discipline / By

Mark H. Allenbaugh, a former award-winning Adjunct Professor on Ethics in Business and the Professions at the George Washington University, was suspended for two years from practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The suspension came as a result of a reciprocal disciplinary proceeding commenced by the Office of Enrollment and Discipline after the

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How Disciplinary Authorities Treat Attorneys Convicted Of Domestic Violence

3 Comments / Discipline, Moral turpitide / By

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  This past year featured several high profile cases of domestic violence. Who can forget the grainy footage of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice cold-cocking his wife in a casino elevator? Or charges that football star Adrian Peterson had physically abused his own child—which is even more bizarre

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“What We’ve Got Here Is Failure To Communicate”  – Preventing The Most Common Cause For Attorney Discipline And Malpractice

2 Comments / Communications, Failure to Communicate, Malpractice, Patent Ethics / By

It is one of the most iconic lines in the history of American cinema.  Spoken by “The Captain”–the sadistic prison warden portrayed in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke—the “failure to communicate” passage near the top of the American Film Institute’s list of top 100 movie quotations, nestled between “I love the smell of napalm

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