Robert J. McAughan

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Professional summary — Robert J. McAughan

Specialty / focus. Public records describe the Houston attorney Robert J. "Bob" McAughan Jr. as a generalist IP trial lawyer — patents, trade secrets, trademarks and trade dress — with technical depth across computer software and integrated circuits, communications, chemical and polymer chemistry, biotech, and oilfield/energy equipment. The PTAB matters verifiable under USPTO Registration No. 36,599 cluster in oil-and-gas drilling tools (National Oilwell DHT, Blackhawk Specialty Tools, Weatherford), consistent with a Houston energy-and-technology client base.

Side preference. The tracked data show a single appearance, on the defendant side, as lead/national counsel; there are no tracked plaintiff-side appearances, so the docket data support a defense-leaning profile. The web-verifiable PTAB work is genuinely two-sided, however: he has led Patent Owner teams (National Oilwell DHT in IPR2015-01210 and IPR2015-01239) and also represented petitioners (Blackhawk Specialty Tools in IPR2015-00892).

Firm context — with a sourcing caveat. The tracked firm of record, "McAughan, De La Rosa & Cedillo," does not appear in any public source I could locate, and I could not confirm it. The documented attorney of this name practices at McAughan Deaver, PLLC in Houston, having previously been a partner at Yetter Coleman LLP (joined January 2018), a principal at the IP boutique Sutton McAughan Deaver PLLC, and before that at Locke Lord, where he was firm-wide head of both the IP litigation section and the IP department; he began his career at Arnold, White & Durkee and also practiced at Howrey. If the tracked party is a different person sharing the name, this practice description should not be attributed to him.

PTAB / IPR and credentials. He appears regularly in IPR proceedings as lead or back-up counsel, with filings under his name spanning roughly 2015–2025, and PTAB analytics services rate him highly (e.g., Ex Parte PTAB grade L5). He was admitted to the Texas bar in 1993 (Tex. Bar No. 00786096) and is registered with the USPTO (Reg. No. 36,599); he holds a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center and an undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Texas A&M University. Notable outcomes: the tracked case is untitled in the source data, so no case-specific result can be reported; the most prominent verifiable matters are the drilling-technology IPRs above, though I could not verify their final written decisions or any appeal results from the sources reviewed.