Fish & Richardson Accused of Dropping Then Suing Client, Quickly

A former Fish & Richardson client says the law firm dumped it as a client, then turned around the next day and sued it for patent infringement on behalf of a rival company.

Aliph Inc., which makes Bluetooth headsets, is seeking to disqualify the law firm, the Recorder reports. Aliph claims the firm should be jettisoned for acting in a manner adverse to its interests even before the suit was filed.

Aliph says in court papers that it had hired the firm to do regulatory work last May and refused in December to waive a conflict of interest for the firm to represent an adverse party in litigation, according to the Recorder account.

Aliph claimed it learned in an e-mail at 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 14 that Fish & Richardson was dumping it as a client, according to the story. The next day Fish filed a suit that claims Aliph’s earbuds infringe on a patent held by Plantronics.

Fish’s client engagement letter did warn that it has required regulatory clients to waive conflicts regarding its intellectual property work; Aliph contends the letter is too broad, the story says.

Diane Karpman, a lawyer with expertise in legal ethics, told the Recorder that Fish’s alleged action took a lot of “chutzpah.”

"It's breathtaking that a firm would disengage at 8:30 and then sue them in the morning," Karpman told the publication. "It would seem to be a pretty valid argument that they were working on this beforehand."