On February 6, 2019, the Colorado Supreme Court shuttered a Colorado business, which once billed itself as an “expert patent law” firm, and its owner, for engaging in the unauthorized practice of law. According to the Court’s order (here), Intelligent Patent Services, LLC (IPS) and its non-lawyer owner, Dak Steiert, are enjoined from engaging in the unauthorized practice of law … Read More
Colorado Man Stole Lawyer’s Identity To Create Fictional Online Law Firm: Criminal Complaint
Prosecutors in Eagle County, Colorado have filed a five-count criminal complaint against Dak Steiert, alleged mastermind behind a fictitious IP law firm. According to state prosecutors, Steiert stole the identities of a real patent lawyer and two others to create a fake law firm which he used to lure unsuspecting inventor “clients” into paying thousands of dollars for patent applications … Read More
Owner Of Phony Patent Law Firm Wants Colorado UPL Case Dismissed
The owner of a fake IP law firm that is being sued in Colorado for allegedly engaging in the unauthorized practice of law has filed a motion to have the case dismissed for alleged lack of subject matter and personal jurisdiction. Dak Steiert, the owner of “Intelligent Patent Services,” which purports to be a “patent law firm,” is the subject … Read More
May The LegalForce Be With You: California IP Firm Sues To Stop LegalZoom’s Unauthorized Practice Of Trademark Law
A California IP law firm today filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to stop LegalZoom for what it alleges are the on-line company’s pervasive and unabated unauthorized practice of trademark law (UPL), in violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct, antitrust law, and state and federal unfair competition law, among other causes of action. LegalForce RAPC Worldwide, P.C. (“LegalForce”), … Read More
Fake Law Firm Misappropriated Practitioners’ Identities To Deceive Inventors: Complaint
From its website, “Intelligent Patent Services, LLC” (or IPS) appeared to have all of the trappings of a legitimate patent law firm. The website included lots of content to back its self-proclaimed status as a “Patent Law Firm.” The website boasted of supposed connections with legitimate organizations, claiming its co-founders worked for Stanford University’s Office of Technology Licensing. Dak Steiert, … Read More
Breadth Of PTO Ethics Opinion Could Alter How IP Firms Interact With Foreign Associates
This post is the last of a three-part series reviewing how the USPTO interprets and applies its ethics rules to IP practitioners who represent patent and trademark clients through non-practitioner intermediaries. Where Are We Now: Evolution of PTO Ethics Opinions Thirty years ago, the PTO issued (in 1987 and 1988) ethics opinions regarding very discrete questions concerning two aspects of … Read More
Better Late Than Never: PTO Updates, Expands Ethics Advice On Client Intermediaries
This post is the second in a three-part series reviewing how the USPTO interprets and applies its ethics rules to U.S. patent and trademark practitioners who represent clients by working through non-practitioner client intermediaries. In re Mikhailova and USPTO’s Expanded Ethics Guidance Three decades after the OG Notices, the USPTO published a final order in the matter of In re … Read More
PTO Suspends PTAB Atty Who Filed Multiple TM Apps For Cannabis Client
The USPTO has suspended a PTO-employed attorney for thirty (30) days for practicing trademark law before the Office for private clients, in violation of federal conflicts of interest laws. See In re Tara K. Laux, Proc. No. D2016-39 (USPTO Dir. Mar. 9, 2017). According to a settlement agreement reached with the OED Director, attorney Tara Laux, who has worked at … Read More
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