Lane Powell Shareholder Paul Swanson was quoted in a November 20 Law360 article titled “Five Tips to Avoid IP Malpractice Suits.” The article discussed IP malpractice suits, which tend to seek high damages that can range from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of dollars. Swanson commented on the increased difficulty of tracking down these cases, as well as the importance of having a formal retainer agreement.
At the same time, these cases are becoming more difficult to track down following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Gunn et al. v. Minton, which held that malpractice cases involving patents should nearly always be heard in state court and upended the Federal Circuit’s practice of hearing appeals of such disputes.
“When the cases were funneled to the Federal Circuit, the value was that there was a body of case law attorneys in the patent profession could look to and see what was happening and how to avoid mistakes,” said Paul Swanson, a Shareholder of Lane Powell PC. “Now, it’s harder to find these cases because they are subject to state law and there’s no convenient, operative database, like you had with Federal Circuit controlling precedent.”