Steve Lipman Image

Steve Lipman

is Of Counsel for Maier and Maier. Steve practiced more than 40 years in intellectual property litigation and served many times as a legal expert witness, and as a prosecution and defense counsel for more than 40 patent and trademark attorneys and practitioners in ethics, disbarment / disciplinary investigations and hearings, and registrations before the USPTO’s OED.

Recent Articles by Steve Lipman

Termination of an OED Disciplinary Proceeding: How A SOL Defense May Be Properly Construed

The Hearing Order concluded that the parties raised sufficient issues of material fact to warrant the ready-to-go Hearing to determine when respondent’s alleged misconduct was actually “made known” to an officer or employee of the USPTO pursuant to §32. Thus, the Hearing would be able to afford the fact-finder the opportunity to assess the credibility of the witnesses and draw inferences from the facts. Further, as the parties were already prepared for the Hearing on the merits of the case, the Judge believed that he would entertain testimony on both the SOL issue and the disciplinary sanction sought by the OED Director. Thus, the Hearing Order determined that the Judge found issues of material fact existed as to when the misconduct forming the basis for the disciplinary proceeding was “made known” to an officer or employee of the Office.