Expensive Patent Attorneys Know How To Cut & Paste, But Not Search & Replace
from the get-your-money's-worth dept
Well, it’s a mistake plenty of folks are bound to make eventually, but that doesn’t make it any less amusing. Joe Mullin has a short post about a big time patent law firm that has launched two recent patent lawsuits over the same basic patents held by a patent holding firm. The only problem? In filing the second lawsuit, it appears that the patent attorneys used cut & paste from the first lawsuit, but didn’t use search & replace to get rid of the name of the original defendant. Hopefully, the patent holder didn’t pay too much for the cost of filing that second lawsuit.
Filed Under: cut and paste, lawsuits, lawyers, patents, search and replace
Comments on “Expensive Patent Attorneys Know How To Cut & Paste, But Not Search & Replace”
let me help
in most windows apps (notepad, MS word, etc.) it’s ctrl+h.
Hah! I thought there wasn’t a market for “formletter lawsuits”.
Microsoft Office Paperclip: I looks like you are trying to sue someone. Would you like help in finding previous lawsuits you’ve prepared so you can cut and paste to save some time?
That was funny!
Just a quick correction. The firm is not comprised of patent attorneys, but general litigators who happen to have fallen upon patent litigation as a revenue source.
Re: Re:
Just a quick correction. The firm is not comprised of patent attorneys, but general litigators who happen to have fallen upon patent litigation as a revenue source.
Which would make them…patent lawyers would it not?
Perhaps neither well qualified or skilled but if that’s on their shingle now that’s what they are.
ttfn
John
horseshit again
The patent attorney I worked with was charging 300$ an hour (6 years ago)
Do you think I would pay this kind of money out of my own pocket if he wasn’t worth it ?
Patent attorneys are different just like dentists
YOu’d better pick a good one
Patent attorneys
I think the post is unfair. Everyone uses cut and paste to reuse prior work. It makes economic sense. Give the poor attorneys a break.
(Important disclosure: I have attorneys as clients. LOL)
Robert
http://www.thebestdwidefense.com
Re: Patent attorneys
Granting, arguendo, that “everyone” uses cut and paste (in my line of work it’s called ‘plagarism’) if you have, as my sainted mother used to say, “one eye and half sense” you proofread the damned thing before you send it out.
This is doubly true if you’re charging $300 an hour for your work.
(Oh, how is it plagarism to cut and paste your own work? Because most of what I do is work for hire, which means the client buys the copyright. Cutting and pasting into document for another client violates the first client’s copyright.)
Re: Re: Patent attorneys
It’s not plagarism when you copy your own work.
Also, legal documents are not covered by work for hire. An attorney is a contractor, not an employee and legal documents aren’t in the short, narrow list of things covered by work-for-hire for contractors.
Besides, at $300 an hour, do you really want to pay an attorney to spend 4 hours or 1 hour to get the same work product?
If any lawyer is going to charge $300 or $400 or more an hour then that said lawyer damn well better take the time to proof read what is being filed. There is no excuse for such a mistake, not at what lawyers charge.
John Wilson, no it wouldn’t make them patent lawyers. In order to be a patent lawyer the person must also pass the patent bar. The patent bar is an exam administered by the USPTO to set minimum qualifications to practice before the patent office.
Patent lawyers generally prepare and file patent applications with the USPTO on the behalf of inventors. Indeed for many patent lawyers, this service is the only legal service that they provide. However, once a patent application issues as a patent any lawyer may file a patent lawsuit to enforce a patent against an infringer.
Many personal injury lawyers have recently tried to jump into contingency patent litigation as a new source of revenue. They usually find themselves over their heads quickly if they do not bring in a patent lawyer early to help them out.
Simple Mistake
It was a simple mistake, but surely I would not want a lawyer messing up a document that was being prepared for me, not when attorneys charge an arm and a leg. Thankfully there are attorney’s out there that take pride in the their work, and make sure everything is double checked before saying they are done.
attorneys