Finding and Resolving Conflicts of Interest That Lurk within IP Matters

Susan Tighe has been providing strategic counseling to Fenwick & West on legal ethics, conflicts-of-interests and other risk management issues since joining the firm in 2015.

Prior to joining Fenwick & West, Susan served as in-house ethics, risk management and conflicts counsel for two leading international Am Law 100 law firms, where she attained over eight years of experience in the field of law firm risk management. Prior to her work in-house for law firms, Susan served as a litigation associate, handling insurance coverage matters. Additionally, she worked for the State Bar of California on its Ethics Hotline for over three years, adding to her extensive knowledge of legal ethics.

Philip Furgang is a founding partner of Furgang & Adwar, LLP. He represents clients across all areas of intellectual property law, with a special focus on complex patent, trademark, copyright, and unfair competition matters, including litigation. He leverages his background in electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering and extensive cross-disciplinary legal experience.

He represents his clients in all other aspects of intellectual property law, including licensing, litigation, intellectual property evaluation and purchase of major corporate assets, major project computer systems, advertising agreements, software agreements, non-disclosure "work for hire" agreements, settlement and release agreements, employment agreements, contracts for the performance of scientific research and to settle litigation, antitrust, mergers and acquisitions, transactional work, internet and e-commerce, advertising review, antitrust, and international transactions. He has a strategic and tactical ability that melds the law with the practical business realities and necessities of competing in a new highly fluid environment. He has advised business and law firms with respect to the strategies and tactics of starting new Internet businesses and litigating in a modern environment.

Mr. Furgang contributes his expertise to bettering the practice of his colleagues in intellectual property law through publications, lectures, and leadership in professional organizations. Most recently, he is co-authoring Patent Prosecution (Matthew Bender 2014), an essential text for attorneys interested in securing the strongest patents possible for their clients' businesses. He is a long-standing member of the Advisory Board of the Bureau of National Affairs' United States Patent Quarterly, which publishes court and agency decisions concerned with intellectual property law. He serves and has served in multiple capacities in such organizations as the New York State Bar Association, the New York Intellectual Property Law Association, and the International Trademark Association. He is a past president of the Rockland County Bar Association; a member of the Leadership Committee of the International Trademark Association; the former Chair of the Public Relations Committee and a founding member and continuing member of the Executive Board of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the New York State Bar Association.

A frequently invited speaker, Mr. Furgang lectures on intellectual property law, litigation tactics, and legal ethics before such professional organizations as the New York Intellectual Property Law Association, the International Trademark Association, the American Bar Association, American Law Institute, the Intellectual Property Owners Association, and the New York State Bar Association's Section on Intellectual Property Law.

He has been interviewed as an expert by national and international broadcast news channels, including NBC, CNBC, CNN, WABC-Eyewitness News, the German First Channel, and the BBC, as well as by publications including the Wall Street Journal.

Among other honors and awards, Mr. Furgang has received an "AV Preeminent" peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, indicating the highest level of ethical standards and professional ability as determined by peers. He is listed in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He has been recognized four times as a New York Super Lawyer for Intellectual Property, an honor reserved for only five percent of all lawyers, 2007 through 2014.

A partner in Haug Partners’ New York office, Mr. Kurz has been counsel on numerous lawsuits before trial courts and on appeal, handling patent infringement cases, false advertising claims, and breach of contract actions concerning intellectual property rights. Many of these have been Hatch-Waxman patent infringement lawsuits representing innovator pharmaceutical companies. Additionally, Mr. Kurz helps companies and individuals obtain and protect intellectual property rights, including by seeking patents for medical devices, computer systems, and mechanical, electrical, and process-related inventions. Clients benefit from Mr. Kurz’s years of hands-on engineering experience gained during his 17-year career prior to law school. His career includes working as a corporate engineer, during which time he was on project teams that designed and built four manufacturing plants that produced, respectively, medium density fiberboard, particleboard, gypsum wallboard, and cement fiberboard. He also spent several years in manufacturing management.