In February 2012, two publishers of scientific journals, John Wiley and the American Institute of Physics, sued two IP law firms for copyright infringement. One suit is against McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff, a 75-attorney firm in Chicago, Durham, N.C., and Port Townsend, Wash. The other is against Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner, a 75-attorney firm in Minneapolis, San Jose, Calif., and Austin, Texas. Both firms advertise their expertise with intellectual property and have active patent prosecution practices.
According to the complaints, the two firms and their attorneys infringed copyrights owned by the publishers in the course of prosecuting patent applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in two ways. First, they are alleged to have made and distributed to the USPTO unauthorized copies of articles from the publishers’ journals. These copies were submitted with information disclosure statements for certain patent applications. Second, the attorneys are alleged to have made and distributed unauthorized copies of the articles for their internal files and/or for distribution outside of their firms, such as to their clients. The articles were copied in their entirety, and the publishers allege that the copies were made and distributed for a commercial purpose — to secure patent rights for the law firms’ clients.
