I had to smile at the questions, published in the Patent Lawyer, Vol. 3, Spring 2006 at 3, one US IP litigator recommends corporate counsel should ask when selecting patent trial counsel: (1) are you registered to practice before the USPTO; (2) have you tried 10 or more patent cases in the last five years and with what outcomes; (3) can you provide “tape recordings of arguments made by [you] or [your] firm before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or for arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court”; (4) what are the names of five corporate counsel or client officer references.
Care to guess what one US lawyer happens to be able to affirmatively answer those questions?
I doubt that general counsel or chief patent counsel conduct such an exhaustive search – except of course to settle down for a good listen to recordings of the oral arguments before appellate courts – when they need to retain patent litigation counsel. Not that any of the questions are useless, but they are quite demanding and time-consuming.