June 18, 2012 - A former client, Axcess International Inc., filed a malpractice action against Baker Botts LLP alleging negligence, gross negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.
Axcess hired Baker Botts in 1998 to help draft patent applications for RFID technology. At the same time, however, the complaint alleges that Baker Botts represented the Savi Group in drafting patent applications on the same invention. Baker Botts concealed the conflict of interest from Axcess, which (according to the complaint) caused Axcess to lose rights to some of the technology it was attempting to patent.
Axcess discovered the conflict in 2009 from a third party. Upon confronting Baker Botts at that time, the law firm's attorneys claimed that there was no conflict since different attorneys were working on each company's patent applications.
Besides its suit against Baker Botts, Axcess is also suing Savi for patent infringement and claims that Savi obtained over $1 billion in government contracts with the patents prosecuted by Baker Botts.