McAughan, De La Rosa & Cedillo

I'll research this firm before writing.

Note on firm identity. Public sources do not surface a firm operating under the exact name "McAughan, De La Rosa & Cedillo." The Houston IP boutique reliably associated with the named attorney, Robert J. McAughan, appears in court and USPTO filings as Sutton McAughan Deaver PLLC (Three Riverway, Suite 900, Houston, TX) and later McAughan Deaver, PLLC (550 Westcott St., Suite 375, Houston, TX 77007). Please verify whether the tracked name is a later iteration of that firm, a short-lived partnership, or a data-entry variant. I could not verify the "De La Rosa" or "Cedillo" name partners in any public source, and I have not flagged them below.

Firm overview. The practice indicated by the tracked data is a small Houston-based intellectual property boutique, not BigLaw. Directory listings describe the affiliated firm as an IP trial practice with two named attorneys (Robert "Bob" McAughan and Albert B. Deaver, Jr.) handling patent litigation nationwide, with roughly 50 years of combined experience. I found no AmLaw ranking, Chambers band, or verified attorney-count or revenue figure for this firm — any such characterization would be unsupported. McAughan himself has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 2005 in Litigation–IP, Litigation–Patent, Patent Law, Trade Secrets, and Trademark.

IP litigation specialty. The firm's own practice description emphasizes patent infringement litigation in federal district courts nationwide, inter partes review work before the USPTO, and trademark/trade dress/trade secret disputes. The verifiable public record skews toward oilfield services and downhole/mechanical equipment: USPTO filings show McAughan representing National Oilwell DHT, L.P. (as patent owner) and Blackhawk Specialty Tools, LLC (in a proceeding involving Weatherford International). That is a Houston-adjacent, electromechanical/energy-sector practice profile rather than software, pharma, or semiconductor work. There is no evidenced base in Wi-Fi standards or SEP litigation.

Side preference. The tracked data shows 0 plaintiff-side and 1 defendant-side appearance (McAughan as Lead/National Counsel). On that single data point the firm presents as defense-leaning, but the sample is one case and cannot support a general rule. The broader public record is genuinely bilateral: McAughan has appeared in PTAB matters on behalf of both patent owners (National Oilwell DHT) and petitioners/challengers. Nothing indicates an NPE/PAE plaintiff practice.

Notable cases and outcomes. The one tracked matter is recorded as an untitled/sealed defense-side entry, so no case name, venue, or outcome can be reported from the authoritative list. The only named matters I could verify are the USPTO proceedings referenced above (IPR2015-01210 and IPR2015-01239 for National Oilwell DHT; IPR2015-00892 involving Blackhawk Specialty Tools). I found no reported jury verdict, Federal Circuit opinion, or announced settlement attributable to this firm.

PTAB / IPR practice and key personnel. The firm does have a demonstrable, though modest, IPR practice — at least three 2015-era petitions/patent-owner representations traceable through USPTO power-of-attorney and mandatory-notice filings. This is a low-volume, matter-by-matter practice, not a high-throughput PTAB shop, and I found no public report quantifying filing volume. The only practice leader supportable from reliable sources is Robert J. McAughan (Reg. No. 36,599; J.D., University of Houston Law Center, 1993). Albert B. Deaver, Jr. and David Terrell (Reg. No. 50,576) appear as attorneys of record for the affiliated Houston firm, but I could not confirm their current roles. I could not source 2–4 named IP litigation partners as requested without relying on unverified listings.