There is a good reason lawyers should not give, and are really uncomfortable having a client publicly discuss advice they have given in a public forumThis crossed a mailing list today:
Subject: fedora-d-rh] Re: question about patent
Without reading or looking at the patent at all, it is almost always really bad to discuss patents in public, especially on email.
Patents & patent trolls are so pervasive that you can help feed patent trolls by bringing up the possibility of infringement in these forums (even when they are marginal claims).
I have always been given guidance that engineers should never, ever do patent searches and never discuss the specifics of IP issues in email.
Amazing takeaway. The poster missed the obvious extension that really NOTHING in the way of litigation awareness and preparations should be discussed
A quick Google search using: willful ignorance of a patent yields this in a pull quote:
Courts have used terms such as *intentional blindness,[15] *blind disregard of the peril it faced[16] and *willful ignorance[17] to describe the accused infringer who did not conduct a search prior to adopting a mark
[later] ... With the ease of accessing information, it is likely that courts will increasingly find that an accused infringer's failure to conduct an appropriate search before adopting its proposed mark is a clear indicator of bad faith.
The article's author 'threads the needle' nicely, between providing general information, and not giving express advice. But he DOES assume the reader recipient will CONSIDER the implications of what is being said. Silly lawyer
Down at the bottom of that information article, we find:
The information contained in this alert is provided for informational purposes only and does not represent legal advice. Neither the APLF nor the author intends to create an attorney client relationship by providing this information to you through this message.
Time to stretch the legs, and walk down to Stauff's for a coffee
