International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP is pleased to announce that attorneys Chris Ainscough, Shane Capps and Kevin Duffy have received the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s 2019 Patent Pro Bono Achievement Certificate. The USPTO recognizes individuals and law firms who help make the Patent Pro Bono Program available to financially under-resourced inventors and small businesses.
Ainscough, Capps and Duffy were recognized for their pro bono work in connection with Mi Casa Resource Center’s ProBoPat program. The ProBoPat program connects low-income inventors with patent practitioners for patent preparation and prosecution legal services on a pro bono (free) basis, and provides access to business consulting and training for bringing new ideas to market.
In 2019, more than 74 volunteer patent practitioners reported 50 or more hours of patent pro bono service to a regional patent pro bono program, and more than 27 law firms reported 100 or more hours. To acknowledge their contributions, the USPTO provided certificates to the patent practitioners and law firms and listed their names on the Patent Pro Bono Program webpage.
Dorsey’s pro bono program is led by two full-time pro bono attorneys and two partners who oversee the program Firm-wide across Dorsey’s 19 offices in the United States, China, Canada and Europe. In 2019, the Firm devoted over 34,000 hours to pro bono work in a wide range of areas from criminal defense work to housing to asylum to protection of women who have been subjected to domestic abuse. Dorsey was an original signatory of the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge and has met the Challenge every year since it was put in place in 1993 by devoting at least 3% of total billable hours to qualifying pro bono work.