At the risk of sounding like a broken record, since it is the New Year I thought it would be helpful to remind you all, again, of what is in my opinion the First Commandment of Ethics: Thou Shalt Communicate With Thy Clients. Seriously. Clients do not like to be ignored by their attorneys. This means that when they call … Read More
Five Strikes And You’re Out At The USPTO
The USPTO Director excluded a patent attorney on consent following a disciplinary investigation arising from numerous alleged violations of the USPTO’s ethics rules. See In the Matter of Edward Etkin, Proc. No. D2016-05 (USPTO Dir. Jan. 8, 2016). The OED conducted a disciplinary investigation into the conduct of patent attorney Edward Etkin of Brooklyn, New York. The OED found that … Read More
OED Cracks Down On Patent Practitioners Working With Invention Promoters
George Foreman pitches their services on late night television commercials. A Google search for “how to sell my invention” turns up scores of them. Many individual inventors believe they have designed the next “better mouse trap” but typically have no clue how to monetize or market their invention. That is where invention marketing or promotion companies step in. Generally speaking, … Read More
Mission Impassable: Moral Character Can Block Applicants From USPTO Bar Membership
The Wolf: “Just because you are a character doesn’t mean that you have character.” – Pulp Fiction So you say you want to become registered to practice before the USPTO? You possess all the requisite technical skills. You did well in law school. You recently passed the Patent Bar Exam with flying colors. Congratulations. So what’s the problem? Well, there … Read More
IP Attorney Challenging Constitutionality Of USPTO OED’s “Abusive” Ethics Investigation
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 on January 6, 2016 by … Read More
IP Litigators Beware: Bad News May Be Hazardous To Your Law License (Part 1 of 2)
Many years ago, before Al Gore invented the internet and teenagers rode their bicycles before dawn, their palms black with ink, to deliver “the paper,” science fiction novelist Douglas Adams observed, “Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.” Truer words today could not be spoken. Indeed, today the on-line … Read More
Courts Sanction Patent Counsel for Litigation Misconduct–Will USPTO Discipline Be Next?
What happens in patent litigation does not necessarily stay in litigation. This is especially true if a court sanctions counsel for litigation misconduct. News about such conduct travels quickly. Inevitably, it catches the attention of a different, and potentially more dangerous, audience–the Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED). Depending on the nature and severity of the litigation misconduct, an OED ethics investigation followed by formal charges alleging litigation counsel violated the USPTO’s Rules of Professional Conduct may prove far … Read More