During his legal career, Bob gained significant experience drafting invalidity and non-infringement opinions as a defense to willfulness, representing clients during due diligence, counseling clients in the acquisition of technology, negotiating patent license agreements, and conducting strategic prosecution as part of a licensing strategy.

Prior to his legal career, Bob worked for 12 years as a senior design engineer, developing products in the areas of solid-state memory, error detection/correction, image compression/decompression, and medical imaging for Digital Equipment Corp. and Polaroid Medical Imaging Systems.

Non-Prosecution-Related Experience

• Served as IP opinion counsel to an RF device manufacturer in support of a public stock offering.
• Represented a client in the due diligence investigation of the client’s patent portfolio in support of a $70M investment made by a European holding company.
• Represented a client in a due diligence investigation regarding a $10M acquisition of a patent portfolio including 1,900 patents related to audio, wearable, and medical technologies.
• Represented a client in the out-licensing of intellectual property related to video and wearable technology for real-time video systems.
• Represented a client in a due diligence investigation for the acquisition of a patent portfolio related to social media systems.
• Advised a client as opinion counsel on issues related to invalidity and non-infringement in defense of an assertion of willful patent infringement of a group of seven patents related to semiconductor wafer processing for use in mobile communications products.

Honors and Awards

• Chambers USA: Recognized in Intellectual Property, 2014-2023 editions
• Best Lawyers in America, 2018-present
• IP Stars Patent Star, 2023

Education

• Wake Forest School of Law, Juris Doctor
• Northeastern University, B.S., Electrical Engineering

Service & Recognition

• Past Chair of the Intellectual Property Section of the North Carolina Bar Association
• Recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association Intellectual Property Section’s 2010 Pro Bono Award for handling appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims

Bar Admissions

• North Carolina
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• United States Supreme Court