Confidentiality

Get Out Of Town: The Ethical Perils Of Outsourcing IP Services

3 Comments / Competence, Confidentiality, IP Ethics, Outsourcing, Patent Ethics / By

Many IP lawyers engage other lawyers or nonlawyers as independent contractors, directly or through intermediaries, to provide various legal and nonlegal support services. The outsourcing market, often referred to as the “legal process outsourcing” market or “professional employer organization” market, is a multi-billion dollar industry. While there is nothing per se unethical about a lawyer outsourcing […]

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Lawyers Need To Know When It’s Time To Shut Up

Leave a Comment / Confidentiality, Patent Ethics / By

I was on a long flight recently and had the misfortune to have to sit behind two lawyers for several hours.  For almost the entire duration of the flight, the attorneys were involved in a detailed discussion about what was obvious (to me anyway) to be a client matter.  They were discussing an upcoming deposition,

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What They Didn’t Teach In Law School: The Ethical Duty Of “Technical Competence”

Leave a Comment / ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Competence, Confidentiality, Continuing Legal Education / By

“True wisdom is knowing what you don’t know.” — Confucius One of my former partners, a brilliant patent lawyer who was (and is) widely respected in the patent bar, used his desktop computer for one purpose and one purpose only—as a convenient surface on which to attach yellow sticky post-it notes to himself. To my

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IP Law Firm Pushes Back Against Lawsuit Alleging It Fraudulently Procured Confidential Inventions

Leave a Comment / Confidentiality, District Court Litigation, Duty to Non-Client / By

Intellectual property law firm Kilpatrick Townsend is fighting back against accusations in a recent complaint accusing the firm and its client, Omnicell, Inc., of conspiring to fraudulently obtain confidential information about a third-party’s inventions and then using that information to acquire patents for Omnicell naming only an Omnicell employee as the inventor. MV Circuit Design, Inc. v. Omnicell, Inc., et al., No. 1:14-cv-02028-DAP (Sept. 12, 2014 N.D.

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USPTO Reprimands Patent Attorney for Misusing Confidential Client Information

1 Comment / Confidentiality, Discipline / By

T The USPTO publicly reprimanded a patent attorney who used information he learned while representing a former client to file, as named plaintiff, a false patent marking lawsuit for his own benefit.  In re Cipriani, No. D2012 This disciplinary action arose from attorney Glen Cipriani’s work as an associate on a patent litigation on behalf of

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