No good deed goes un-criticized, even IP recovery programs by law departments

A roundtable last year discussed infringement actions where one general counsel, a litigator who had protected the Mercedes brand name for several years, remarked that the “principle was that over time, with damages, actions brought to defend the brand would fund our costs.” .

Another lawyer ran over that idea. If the campaign aims to fund itself, “there is a danger that you target the easiest cases, rather than the ones that are most important to the business to fight.” (See my post of Feb. 8, 2006 concerning DuPont’s recovery initiative.)