When an invention disclosure submission crosses the desk of an in-house intellectual property attorney, the next step is often to determine if the product is patentable and, if it is, whether a patent application should be filed. But sometimes there’s another consideration—patent application quotas for legal departments. For one former in-house patent attorney from cosmetics company L’Oréal USA Inc., this was an added consideration that allegedly got him fired.
Performance metrics for in-house counsel around patent applications aren’t as rare as some might expect, which may raise the question of how to balance quotas with professional ethical obligations, according to in-house and outside IP counsel.
