Today, the Federal Register published the Rules of Professional Conduct for practice before the USPTO, which will be effective on May 3, 2013. See the Rules and related commentary (here).
The USPTO said it's: "Designed to make life easier for the more than 41,000 practitioners who
interact with our agency, they are based upon the American Bar Association’s
Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The ethics rules are the first major
update since 1985 and reflect the rules in place in 49 states and the District
of Columbia. We spent a great deal of time reaching out to stakeholders in the
IP community to balance the need of applicants as well as practitioners.
Additionally, I am proud to say that the latest rulemaking eliminated the
annual practitioner maintenance fee."
Note if you are practicing in California, it has not adopted the Model Rules. See California's Professional Rules of Conduct here.
Copyright © 2013 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.
