Foley & Lardner sued by former client Vaxxion

According to an article in The Reporter, the law firm Foley & Lardner is being sued by a (former) client over patent malpractice and conflict issues.

The article stated:

Vaxiion Therapeutics Inc., which develops new ways to deliver vaccines using genetically engineered mini-cells, claims attorneys in Foley's San Diego office missed the deadline by four days, allowing a competitor to cash in on the same intellectual property, according to a complaint filed in San Diego County Superior Court late last month. The kicker is that Foley allegedly represented the competitor, EnGene Inc., at the same time without notifying Vaxiion, causing a conflict, according to the suit.

The article also noted:

The suit comes on the heels of a California Supreme Court decision last year to let stand a lower court ruling on a malpractice award of about $30 million against Boston-based Fish & Richardson over similar allegations. In that case, Kairos Scientific Inc., a San Diego chemical digital imaging company, won the judgment after Fish's Redwood City, Calif., office failed to file a patent in a timely fashion.

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ALSO
See a 2005 article: Highly Publicized Lawsuit by Inventor Overturned

with text:

Plaintiff Melissa Morano , a college student, who devised a cell phone powered by solar energy, had contacted defendant Society of American Inventors (SAI) in Akron for help in obtaining a patent for her device.

However, the US Patent and Trademark Office rejected the idea for various reasons, including the fact that she was neither an inventor nor an engineer, and she had no idea how to make a solar-powered cell phone. At the end of three years, Morano had spent US$10,000 without obtaining the patent.

After failing to get a refund from SAI's founder - Akron patent attorney John D. Gugliotta - Morano filed suit in Summit Country Common Pleas Court.

***On patent malpractice, see also

Malpractice Cases Based on a Missed Patent Filing by Mark Hancock at sdma.com.