In an interview with the Daily Business Review, Jim Gale discussed what keeps him awake about his practice, what attracted him to intellectual property law, how trade secret business held steady through the pandemic, if the COVID-19 outbreak resulted in an increase in trade secret litigation, and what he sees as a threat.
What keeps you awake about your practice and how do you overcome it?
"Competition and not generating enough business. The Intellectual law “business” has become significantly more competitive since I first started. There are so many more people calling themselves “IP lawyers” when they really don’t have a background in that area. It used to be that IP lawyer only referred to “patent lawyer.” Now though, because trade secret and patent law have become so lucrative, you get unqualified personal injury, labor and employment and general commercial litigation attorneys all claiming to be “IP Lawyers,” who allegedly specialize in trade secret or patent litigation, without the technical background to support such a designation," Jim said.