Can a patent attorney steal your invention in initial consultation? I disclosed my invention with a patent attorney on my first free consultation to understand if it is patentable and get advice. The patent attorney told me that I can disclose it because they are legally bound to confidentiality because of their job. However we didn't sign anything yet and we had a remote video consultation due to the coronavirus lockdown. I have registered the conversation, is that enough to protect my invention? Should I avoid disclosing my invention with patent attorneys on initial consultations next time?
Your lawyer owes you a fiduciary duty A fiduciary duty[ is the highest standard of care in equity or law. A fiduciary is expected to be extremely loyal to the person to whom he owes the duty (the "principal") such that there must be no conflict of duty between fiduciary and principal, and the fiduciary must not profit from their position as a fiduciary (unless the principal consents). Legally, you can trust a fiduciary more than you can your own mother.
From what I can see on the USPTO registry, &quot;tweet&quot; is still not trademarked for the purposes you're talking about. Twitter has been working to secure that trademark, but I can't find any record of them having actually secured it. Just the same, I'd predict that using it will get you at least a cease-and-desist letter, and possibly a lawsuit. Whether you'd win that case seems to be a very open question, but that presumes you have the resources to litigate.
Tell whatever lawyer is drafting the "official paperwork" about the problem and ask if it is covered or if you need to change the text or add a rider. If neither company competes, a mutual release/license of existing shared code should be perfectly manageable for an experienced attorney.
I have already contacted a lawyer and paid all the money I had and they didn't help me resolve anything, the guy just talked to me for a little bit. He essentially just took my $600 and no action was made. He said the best thing to do would be to wait it out because the contracts were never fulfilled by them and they can't claim my inventions etc if I am an independent contractor. To me it just sounded like a bunch of BS and not a real solution to this. You paid $600 for expert advice which told you to do nothing. You think the advice is bullshit and intend to go full steam ahead against the advice given. I'd say it is very likely that the lawyer is a better expert than you, so you should follow his advice. You are in a hole, you were told to stop digging, and you intend to continue digging. Don't. There are times where doing nothing is the best advice. In this case, you intend to accuse someone of breach of contract. That has a good chance of landing you in court. A company cannot afford to ignore such a statement. You claim the contract is void and you want to cancel it - but you can't cancel a void contract. It's void. Listen to your lawyer.
If they have not filed before the publication, there will be no ability to later file in most of the world. In the U.S. there is a sort-of one year grace period to file after publication. You will not have a way to definitively know if there is an application pending until it publishes or issues. Normally an application publishes and is open for the public to see 18 months after the first priority filing. That applies to the rest of the world, but in the U.S. it is possible to opt-out of publication. In that case no one can see he application until the day it issues as a granted patent, if ever. If you are making, selling, offering for sale, using or importing an infringing process or product when a patent issues you could be sued for patent infringement. I do not see how this can be seen a &quot;retroactive&quot;. As a practical matter, if you fold immediately upon the patent issuing it is unlikely you will end up with any liability. You can set a search in more than one search facility to trigger if a patent is issued to one of the known inventors or use with other criteria but this is not foolproof. Edited Of course your product could infringe any number of patents unrelated and unbeknownst to the party who published the software. That party not patenting has nothing to do with what others may have filed before they published.
Does this prove that the unlicensed attorney is practicing law outside their jurisdiction and is providing legal advice by representing the &quot;client&quot; in legal negotiations? No. Your quote of the email does not prove that the receiver engaged in unlicensed practice of law. Nor does it prove that the receiver/non-attorney is representing, or advising, the attorney's client or the adversary. It is quite possible and valid for the unlicensed lawyer (example: paralegals) to assist an attorney who actually represents the party.
The answer will depend upon the state law that is applicable, assuming you are in the U.S. Patent law is federal law but patents and patent applications are considered personal property, like a car, and the ownership and transfer of that property is governed by state law. The terms you imagine are in your agreement are too draconian in California, for example. Please get a copy of what you signed and edit your question to include key points and indicate your state.
Since your consent is not required in Texas, revocation is irrelevant. Restrictions of use of recordings flow from the legal nature of the recording itself, so there is no provision saying, for example, that only one party needs to consent for just recording, but all parties must consent to make any use of the recording. Since these laws were devised to regulate the practice of wearing a wire and collecting evidence of crimes, requiring consent from all parties would be counterproductive to the purposes of the law. You could try drafting a contract where you pay people to not record you (anybody who doesn't sign, you shouldn't talk to them), but enforcement could be tricky, so I would not try a DIY contract: get a lawyer. You would have to show that you were harmed by them making an unconsented recording. It should be in the form of a contract where you give something of value in exchange for something of value, which is a thing typically enforced by the courts. Also bear in mind that even in an all-party state, if you know that you are being recorded, you cannot just say &quot;I do not consent&quot;, you have to stop talking. Continuing to talk when notified that there is or may be a recording constitutes implied consent, which is why on the phone companies often announce via recording that the conversation may be monitored, and they do not ask &quot;Do you consent&quot;. By not hanging up, you consented.