Patent Litigation Ethics: Evading Trouble, Avoiding Sanctions and Staying Ethical

Patent Litigation Ethics: Evading Trouble, Avoiding Sanctions and Staying Ethical

View Session Speakers

Ethics and patent enforcement has been center stage recently in several high-profile matters in the district court and at the Patent Trial in Appeal Board (PTAB).

In one particular case between OpenSky Industries, LLC (the Petitioner) vs. VLSI Technology LLC (the Patent Owner), in a fight over the validity of claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,523,373, attorneys for OpenSky offered to secretly come to an agreement with VLSI, unbeknownst other parties, or the PTAB itself. The OpenSky “construct,” as the offer framework is repeatedly called in the e-mail, says that if an agreement is reached, OpenSky will refuse to pay their expert, which will guarantee that the expert does not appear for the scheduled deposition. After the expert did not appear for the deposition, OpenSky agreed they would join VLSI in a motion to dismiss.

In another case, this one in front of Judge Connolly in the District of Delaware, attorneys associated with patent monetization firm IP Edge were referred to their state disciplinary bars, the Texas Supreme Court’s Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Department of Justice for their conduct in directing several individuals, including a fried chicken restaurant owner and a surgical assistant, to undertake liabilities associated with patent litigation in U.S. district court without disclosing the interests of IP Edge, which stood to gain 90% of the gross recovery from the asserted patents.

This panel will discuss these two cases, as well as a variety of other cases, some where attorneys became embroiled in unethical activities and others where attorneys precisely and scrupulously followed the ethics requirements, carefully and properly navigating what can sometimes be a thin line between following the instructions of a client while also demonstrating the required duty of candor toward the tribunal hearing the case.

Materials

Chief Judge Connolly Refers IP-Edge Affiliated Attorneys for Disciplinary Action

Vidal Awards VLSI Attorney Fees for OpenSky Abuse

OpenSky Attorney Emails Expose the Seedy Underbelly of PTAB Practice

Patent Litigation Ethics: Specific Cases

Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/patent-litigation-ethics