April 1, 2010 - Eli Wald, Ken Taylor, & Robert Sacoff

April IP Section Event

Co-sponsored by the International Trademark Association

Using Deception in IP Related-Investigations: Are You Unwittingly Violating The Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct?

April 1, 2010; 11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m.
Denver ChopHouse, Large Banquet Room

 At one time or another, we have all used deception to obtain information from a third party to gather prior art to support a claim or opinion of invalidity or to detect patent, trademark or copyright infringement.  This lunch program will be a panel discussion focusing on when such decpetive conduct may violate the Colordao Rules of Professional Conduct.  The discussion topics will include:

• Whether a lawyer is ethically permitted to make misrepresentations to a third party?
• Whether investigators or other proxies can make misrepresentations on the lawyers or law firm’s behalf?
• Are the ethical rules governing attorney behavior context-specific?
• Do the ethical rules only apply to lawyers “acting as lawyers” in the context of a litigation or transactional negotiation, but not when lawyers are acting as fact-finders or investigators?

 Panel:

Eli Wald, Charles W. Delaney Jr. Associate Professor of Law and Hughes-Ruud Research Professor, University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

Ken Taylor, Founder, CEO and Chairman of Marksman, Inc.

Robert W. Sacoff, Partner, Pattishall McAuliffe.