Are IP attorneys expected to behave in a particular way? Always formal, poker faced and polished? Why are we driven by these unsaid, yet strictly imposed, diligently followed and unbelievably fettered, so called “professional etiquette.” I feel suffocated and wrongfully restrained by these norms, and wonder if all attorneys have to live with them for a life time.<\/p>\n
Shedding some of those\u00a0chains, I am sharing one of my more light-hearted experiences\u00a0as a patent attorney. I hope you will enjoy it. Please forgive me if I have crossed the line you have drawn for how we attorneys must conduct ourselves.<\/p>\n
During my fifteen years as an IP attorney I have had several interesting and amusing experiences.<\/p>\n
One afternoon, I was\u00a0urging my driver to get me out of Chennai before the traffic strikes when I received a call from the office.<\/p>\n
“Are you in Chennai K?” N asked uncertainly.<\/p>\n
I knew from her tone that something nasty was in store for me.<\/p>\n
“Yes N. Do you want something from here?” I asked tentatively<\/p>\n
“Yes K. Just a small thing.<\/p>\n
If you don’t mind, can you just drop into the patent office and sign a few documents. It will take just two minutes,” she dropped the shell I was expecting.<\/p>\n
“But, I am in my shorts N,” I tried to protest, but she cut me off.<\/p>\n
“Please. It is really urgent.”<\/p>\n
It seemed like a request, but it was an order, and I gave up.<\/p>\n
“Turn around …,” I told my driver, who looked at me as if I had gone mad.<\/p>\n
But, he did not express his feelings in words. He was used to my short temper, and decided to keep his emotions to himself.<\/p>\n
Forty minutes later, we arrived at the Patent Office and I\u00a0called C. I wanted\u00a0to ask him to come to the car and take my signatures.<\/p>\n
“Sir, I am on the second floor. Can you please come over? The Controller wants to meet you,” he said without hearing what I was trying to say.<\/p>\n
“But C, I am wearing shorts,” I tried to reason, but he did not let me complete.<\/p>\n
“That is not a problem Sir. Come fast Sir. It is urgent.”<\/p>\n
Another urgency, and another order. Holding my reluctant driver’s arm, I\u00a0\u00a0 made my way towards the second floor. I was the centre of attention in the Patent Office that day, and the topic of discussion for several days\u00a0thereafter, I was told. Every one\u00a0stopped to gaze curiously at the funny guy with the cane, wearing a long pair of shorts, short t-shirt, and slippers.<\/p>\n
Ironically, someone told me that they referred to me as “Short Patent Man” for several days. Thankfully that name has not stuck because \u2018short’ or ‘Short patent’ doesn’t reflect my nature.<\/p>\n
While we were at the elevator, C came bounding down the stairs and informed me that the Controller had to get on a call with the\u00a0 Controller General and would meet me next time. Thanking my stars, I quickly signed the documents and rushed out without another word.<\/p>\n
Authored by a Senior Partner at BananaIP Counsels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A senior IP attorney shares a memorable visit to the Chennai Patent Office, challenging the strict professional etiquette expected in the Indian legal field. The narrative offers a candid reflection on balancing tradition with individual authenticity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8431,29,413,8432,5648,364,493,8430],"class_list":["post-38068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property","tag-attorney-dress-code","tag-india","tag-ip-attorney","tag-legal-experiences","tag-legal-profession","tag-patent-attorney","tag-patent-office","tag-professional-etiquette"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38068"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135538,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38068\/revisions\/135538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}