Office of Enrollment and Discipline

PTAB Awards Attorneys’ Fees As Sanction For Protective Order Violation

Leave a Comment / OED, Office of Enrollment and Discipline, Patent Ethics, PTAB Sanctions / By

On July 1, 2016, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in RPX Corp. v. Applications in Internet Time LLC, IPR2015-01750, 01751 & 01752, ordered patent owner Applications in Internet Time (AIT) to pay petitioner RPX Corp. $13,500 in attorney’s fees as a sanction for violating the Board’s protective order.  The Board found sanctions were warranted […]

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What Can Johnny Manziel Teach Lawyers About Ethics? (Plenty)

1 Comment / Alcoholism, Legal Ethics, Moral turpitide / By

Part 1 of a 3-Part Series Ex-Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel has been in the news a lot lately. And none of it has been good. The former Heisman Trophy winner and 2014 first round NFL draft pick was “much watch” sports TV for his prowess on the gridiron. His professional career, which began with such

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Excluded Patent Attorney Appeals To Federal Circuit

Leave a Comment / Client Funds, District Court Litigation, Office of Enrollment and Discipline, Petition to E.D. Va. / By

A patent attorney who was excluded from the USPTO has appealed to the Federal Circuit. By way of background, on July 15, 2015, the USPTO Director entered an order excluding Richard Polidi from practice before the Office.  The USPTO Director’s disciplinary action came after the Director of the Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED) filed

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The OED Redemption: Director Expediting Petitions To Reinstate Suspended Practitioners

Leave a Comment / Discipline, Office of Enrollment and Discipline, Patent Ethics / By

It is not necessarily an easy feat for a suspended lawyer to become readmitted to the Bar.  Some jurisdictions prohibit a suspended lawyer from even entering into a law firm.  In other jurisdictions, a suspended lawyer may work as a paralegal subject to numerous restrictions and conditions.   For lawyers who have practiced for many

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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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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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When It Comes To Teaching About Money, Law Schools Fail Miserably

Leave a Comment / ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Safekeeping Property / By

Law schools are failing miserably to teach up and coming lawyers the most fundamental aspects of the business of law.  The absence of such training is particularly troublesome in today’s legal climate, where new law school grads far out number available entry level jobs. This economic reality can drive many newly-minted Esquires to make some

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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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