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Deontology – Confidentiality of the exchanges between Intellectual Property Consultants and lawyers

Deontology – Confidentiality of the exchanges between Intellectual Property Consultants and lawyers

The Paris Court of Appeals recently ruled on an important case (see http://cncpi.fr/fckupload/File/151124-CAParis%20Arr%C3%AAt%20.pdf), providing a strong reminder about deontological rules applicable between Industrial Property Attorneys and Attorneys-at-law.

In this case, the Attorney-at-law of the appealing party had presented before the Court a copy of a letter he received from the respondent’s IP Attorney. He considered that he was not bound by the confidentiality stated by article L. 422-11 of the French Intellectual Property Code and thus free to disclose a correspondence covered by confidentiality.

For your perfect information, article L. 422-11 of the French Intellectual Property Code states that “In any matter and for all the services (…), the Industrial Property Attorney shall observes professional secrecy. Consultations addressed or intended for customers, professional correspondences exchanged with customers, fellow-members or Attorneys-at-law, notes of meetings and, more generally, all documents of the file shall be subject to professional secrecy”. This means that IP Attorneys are required to respect an absolute professional secrecy and that the extent of their obligations in this matter is similar to the one of Attorneys-at-law.

As a consequence to this violation of deontological rules by the Attorney-at-law of the appealing party, the Court accepts to set aside the contentious letter from the debates, deciding that doing otherwise would “render meaningless this secrecy meant to protect the interests of the client involved”.

Such ruling of the Paris Court of Appeals, still subject to appeal, is welcome as it reminds strong and valuable principles of our profession, namely : (i) confidentiality of exchanges between IP Attorneys and Attorneys-at-law, (ii) high level of requirements in applying deontological rules for IP Attorneys and (iii) the alignment of these rules on those of Attorneys-at-law, which we find essential to best defend our Clients’ interests.

Axel Doucerain

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