R. David Donoghue

R. David Donoghue is a technology litigator focusing on patent litigation. He serves as a Patent Trial Lawyer & Co-Practice Group Leader at the Aviation Team of the law firm Holland & Knight LLP.  He concentrates on complex civil litigation cases across a broad spectrum of substantive areas such as aviation, copyrights, patents, product liability, trade secrets, and trademarks.

He represents companies in competitor patent litigation, and routinely defend them against patent troll or non-practicing entities. The RPXIS insurance program selected him as a lead trial lawyer to defend companies against non-practicing entities. He has gained extensive intellectual property licensing experience throughout his legal career.

His practice includes diverse technology areas such as internet technologies, television production equipment, automotive technologies, aircraft control systems, numerous medical devices, electrical technologies, satellite communications, nutritional supplements, satellite radios, and computer software.

R. David Donoghue has earned several honors and awards such as the Best Lawyers in America guide for Patent Law, Patent Litigation, and Intellectual Property Litigation during 2015-2019, 2016-2019, and 2019 respectively.

Managing Intellectual Property magazine named him IP Star for achievements in Patent Contentious, Trademark Contentious, and Licensing during 2013-2019. He found his name in IAM Patent 1000, the World’s Leading Patent Professionals in Litigation in the International Asset Management magazine during 2014-2018.

The National Law Journal named him in Chicago’s Rising Stars 40 Under 40 in 2013. The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics selected him Current Developments Editor. The Chicago Bar Association conferred the Herman Kogan Media Award on him. His name featured in Chicago Business Lawyer magazine 2010 40 and Under 40 in the year 2010.

He usually provides legal services in industries such as Transportation & Infrastructure, and Technology & Telecommunications. He has successfully litigated complex technology-based cases in courts throughout the US. In a recent trial, he has obtained a successful jury verdict along with the finding of willfulness in the Northern District of Illinois.

He has also appeared before the Sixth, Ninth and Federal Circuit courts in appellate matters. His clients benefit from his deep understanding of aerospace and aeronautical engineering. For instance, using his understanding of fluid dynamics, he recently reduced his client’s expert costs in technology litigation while driving the case toward a positive outcome.

He could leverage an early settlement on favorable terms for this client in a patent dispute by using his thorough understanding of propulsion systems and coupled his understanding of fluid dynamics and material science to help develop a winning technology-based strategy for his client in a trade secret matter.

While studying aerospace and aeronautical engineering at the University of Michigan, he focused on propulsion systems & structural mechanics and received a research grant to develop and build a low-cost, mass-producible turbojet engine.

As the elected leader of the senior class, he worked towards developing comprehensive plans for a mission and craft to launch from Earth, rendezvous with a comet and return a sample of the comet to Earth.

He also led his team’s presentation of their plan to representatives of the Jet Propulsion Laboratories. He completed a study of the effectiveness of vortex generators and suction along the surface of an airfoil to improve the airfoil’s stall parameters.

He previously worked with Delphi, the world’s largest automotive supplier, as a founding member of its Technology Licensing and Litigation group. He handled international intellectual property litigation and licensing matters while serving there.

He has also served as an adjunct professor at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law and has taught courses on legal research & writing, and intellectual property. At the Solo Practice University, he teaches a course on federal district court litigation practice.

R. David Donoghue obtained his Juris Doctorate cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center and started his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Gordon J. Quist, Federal District Judge for the Western District of Michigan.

He has obtained bar admissions in California, Illinois, and Michigan. He has obtained admissions to various courts such as U.S. Patent & Trademark Office; the Sixth, Ninth, & Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals; the Central & Eastern District Courts of California;  the Central, Northern, & Southern District Courts of Illinois, the Western District Court of Michigan, the Eastern District Court of Wisconsin, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

He has obtained memberships of professional associations such as the PTAB Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, and Law360 Intellectual Property Editorial Advisory Board. He has served as a Board Member of University of Michigan Aerospace Engineering Alumni Association.

Attorney Donoghue has served as a volunteer with the Engineering Alumni Board of the University of Michigan College of Engineering and board member at the Advise Us Foundation during 2017-18 and 2014-17 respectively.