Robert Ambrogi Blog
Hyperbole gets my hackles up, and none more so than websites or products that claim to be the first of their kind when in fact they are not. Regular readers will know that, in the past, I’ve called sites out for erroneously proclaiming themselves to be first at something.
So when I saw a press release with the headline, A New Ethics Blog is Heralded as the First of Its Kind, I was duly skeptical. Frankly, given the broad universe of legal blogs now published, it is pretty hard to come up with a truly unique concept.
Kudos, then, to Baltimore, Md., lawyer Michael E. McCabe Jr., because it appears he actually has come up with a first-of-its-kind focus for his newly launched blog. Called IPethics & INsights, the blog covers legal ethics, professional discipline and professional liability in the specific context of patent and trademark law.
McCabe, a partner with the Maryland firm Funk & Bolton, is a patent attorney who, in addition to handling patent matters, represents lawyers in professional misconduct, attorney discipline and ethics matters. His blog will report on disciplinary decisions from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, state bar regulators and federal and state court decisions involving disqualification and malpractice.
I have not found any other legal blog that fits specifically within this niche. Other IP blogs and ethics blogs periodically touch on topics relating to ethics and malpractice in the IP context, but none focus on it exclusively.
There is a lesson here for other lawyers who are just thinking about starting blogs. It may seem like there are no topics yet to be covered. But perhaps by focusing on a more narrow aspect of a broader topic, there is a unique niche to be found.