Jim McDonough is a lawyer and technologist who has always enjoyed a good fight. He takes that spirit into the courtroom where he has served as lead counsel in hundreds of litigated matters, representing a diverse set of clients ranging from individuals and startups companies to Fortune 100 and publicly traded companies.

Although Jim’s practice has touched on many areas of the law over the years, the core of his practice has always focused on complex technology-oriented litigation, including intellectual property and patent litigation, class actions, and multidistrict litigation.

Whether Jim is privately retained by a client or appointed by a federal judge as counsel, he brings a practical approach to resolving disputes that includes pursuing strategies that create leverage for his clients, which has helped him recover hundreds of millions of dollars for his clients. Jim’s practice includes both trial and appellate advocacy, where he has represented his clients in state and federal courts across the country, including in more complex jurisdictional settings like consolidated and multi-district proceedings. The technologies that have been at the center of Jim’s practice involve a wide array of technical disciplines and industries, including telecommunications, automotive emissions, unmanned aerial vehicles, aircraft fuel systems, IoT and smart home systems, wireless networks technology, optical networking, data privacy and security, encryption, media and content distribution, cloud computing, interactive voice response systems, health monitoring systems, semiconductors, and medical devices, to name some.

• Managing Editor, Emory Law Journal
• Award, Top Emory Law Journal Comment for 2006, Myth of the Patent Troll: An Alternative View of the Function of Patent Dealers in an Idea Economy
• Member, TI:GER Program: A two-year interdisciplinary program with Georgia Tech focusing on technology commercialization and the process of taking inventions from laboratory to marketplace
• Competitor, Lunar Ventures Business Plan Competition, Golden, CO (2nd place); New Ventures World Competition, Lincoln, NE (2nd place), Tyler New Venture Competition, Tyler, TX (3rd place).

Bar Admissions

• Georgia
• Northern District of Georgia
• Southern District of Georgia
• Middle District of Georgia
• Eastern District of Texas
• Western District of Texas
• District of Colorado
• Eastern District of Michigan
• Eastern District of Missouri
• Eastern District of Wisconsin
• U.S. Court of Claims
• U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• United States Supreme Court

Professional Involvement

• At-Large Director: Chastain Park Civic Association (2021- )
• Advisory Board Member: Advise Technology Innovation: Generating Economic Results (TI:GER), Technology Commercialization Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology/Emory University (2008-2013).
• Leadership Board Member: Emerging Leaders Network, part of Georgia Bio (2009, 2010).
• Judge: Georgia Institute of Technology Business Plan Competition (2008-2013).
• Judge: Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Computer Science Division (2009).
• Judge: Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week for Azure (2009).
• Case Study Leader: Angel Funding Seminar; Tech Coast Angels Bootcamp, San Diego, CA (2008).

Representative Matters

• Represented home inspection company at trial over dispute involving its patented infrared thermal imaging technology that resulted in a jury verdict awarding all damages sought by the plaintiff.
• Appointed as class counsel in a class action dispute with one of the largest luxury automobile manufacturers over automotive technology that resulted in a settlement valued at over $20 million.
• Represent the owner of a 40+ patent portfolio covering fleet management technologies in enforcement efforts that have resulted in favorable licensing agreements in the fleet management space.
• Appointed to the plaintiffs steering committee for a set of class actions consolidated in a multi-district litigation (MDL) against one of the largest internet service providers in the United States, which resulted in a settlement of over $15 million.
• Represent the owner of approximately 50 patents covering network security, distributed computing, content management, and media distribution in litigation to enforce its patented technologies in the cloud computing industry, which has resulted in the client licensing its technology on favorable terms.
• Represented thousands of plaintiffs in a federal mass action against a leading agricultural company concerning its unapproved release of genetically modified corn that contaminated the U.S. corn supply that resulted in a $1.5 billion settlement covering three sets of consolidated proceedings in federal and state courts.
• Represented multiple plaintiffs in a federal employment trial concerning numerous violations of federal law that resulted in a directed verdict in favor of several plaintiffs and a verdict after deliberation for the remainder of the plaintiffs.

Publications

• Featured Speaker: Intellectual Property Leakage:  Unauthorized Commercialization, Association of University Technology Managers, Central Region Meeting, Louisville, Kentucky, 2011.
• Managing Patent Litigation Costs, Patent Litigation 2009, Vol I, 307, ISBN 978-1-4024-1273-8, Practising Law Institute, 2009.
• What Business Owners Should Know About Patenting, Wall Street Journal Interview, published August 11, 2008.
• Surviving MedImmune: Strategies for Licensors in the Aftermath of MedImmune, State Bar of Georgia, Intellectual Property Law Section Newsletter, February 2008.
• Featured Speaker: New HIV Diagnostic Technology at Georgia Life Sciences Summit, 2007.
• The Myth of the Patent Troll: An Alternative View of the Function of Patent Dealers in an Idea Economy, 56 Emory Law Journal 189, 2006; reprinted in Patent Trolls: Legal Implications, ICFAI Journal, 2007.