A California patent and trademark law firm is facing potential sanctions after it recorded and used the statements of an interviewee to bolster its complaint in a recently filed lawsuit against a trademark filing service. Recording
The patent and trademark law firm’s suit alleged that the trademark filing service had used non-lawyers to conduct legal work. In an effort to gain leverage against the filing service, the law firm interviewed one of the filing service’s former employees and asked the interviewee questions that pertained to the lawsuit.
When asked if the law firm had explained to the interviewee that it planned to use the interviewee’s statements for this purpose, the firm responded that the telephonic interview was preceded by a message that indicated the interview was being recorded, that the interviewee had indicated that she was aware of the current lawsuit and thus knew her statements could be used in the lawsuit. The firm further raised the fact that the state where the interviewee resided and the state from where the call was placed did not require that any notice of recording be provided to the interviewee.
The interviewee, for her part, believes that she was tricked into providing adverse information and was offered a job under false pretenses. The law firm noted that it would like to hire the interviewee if she was still interested in working for the law firm. This litigation is ongoing and what will come of the motion for sanctions is yet to be determined.
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