On January 6, 2022, the First Department issued a decision in Morgan & Mendel Genomics, Inc. v. Amster Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP, 2022 NY Slip Op. 00048, holding that a client’s claim against its lawyers for failing timely to file a patent application accrues when the client’s application becomes untimely, explaining:
[T]he complaint was also untimely. A claim for legal malpractice is subject to a three-year statute of limitations. The malpractice accrues, and the limitation period starts running, when the act, error, or omission occurs. Here, the alleged malpractice would have occurred no later than December 14, 2012, the last day that plaintiff contends that the patent application could have been timely filed. Plaintiff did not commence this action until November 22, 2019.
(Internal citation omitted) (emphasis added).