Skip to main content
Contact Locations Diversity Pro Bono Our Story
Robert H. Walat

Robert H. Walat

President and Managing Partner
617.646.8291 Robert.Walat@WolfGreenfield.com LinkedIn Profile

Education

  • BS, Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • MS, Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University
  • JD, Suffolk University Law School

Key Technologies

  • Electronics
  • Semiconductor Materials
  • Polymeric Materials
  • Ceramics and Metals
  • Nanotechnology
  • Batteries
  • Medical Devices
  • Displays
  • LEDs

Practice Groups

Admitted to Practice

  • Massachusetts
  • US Patent and Trademark Office

Location

  • Boston
  • New York

Overview

Rob Walat is Wolf Greenfield’s President and Managing Partner and chairs the firm’s Chemical & Materials Technologies Practice. Rob has been practicing for over 20 years and provides strategic advice to clients ranging in size from start-up companies to large global corporations on domestic and international patent issues. His practice focuses on competitive analysis, counseling, and patent portfolio development. He is particularly experienced in areas of patent prosecution, due diligence to support investment and M&A activity, opinion work, foreign patent oppositions, and patent litigation support. 

Rob’s work primarily relates to materials, mechanical, and chemical technologies including polymeric materials, electronic materials, semiconductors, ceramics and metals, and polymeric materials. Rob’s technical proficiency also includes areas of nanotechnology, batteries, medical devices, displays, and LEDs.

Rob has served two terms on the firm’s Executive Committee and has chaired the firm’s Strategic Planning Committee.

Prior to joining Wolf Greenfield, Rob was a materials scientist at a start-up company working in the field of polymeric materials, where he was a contributing inventor on several pending patents. He also worked as a semiconductor process engineer at Intel Corporation.

Client Testimonials

Rob does a fantastic job staying on top of things. I rely heavily on him to get the right information to me so I can make decisions about continuing with the patent or abandoning it.

Every call that I have with Rob starts with him asking, ‘How is the business doing?’ and not ‘How is the matter going?’ Rob can probably recite our business strategy better than I can.

If we are working on something that requires a lot of information, Rob can synthesize it to what I need to get to a decision. He makes the best use of my time without wasting it.

Rob’s willingness to do off-the-clock work probably doesn’t cost him a lot, but we never feel like we are being penny pitched. Also, we have hour and half-hour off-the-clock patent strategy sessions that Rob participates in, and he went to DC for us, and that was off the clock too. That kind of stuff really helps distinguish him. A lot of firms will just send reporting letters, but Rob will follow up with an e-mail and is very proactive.

Experience

  • Led IP due diligence for numerous deals with values ranging from $10 million to $5 billion.
  • Developed patent portfolios and strategies for numerous early-stage companies. Current clients have raised over $500 million in funding from venture capital firms and other funding sources.
  • Developed and managed portfolio of hundreds of patents for a world market leader with a significant licensing program.  
  • Guided successful defenses of a client's key patents, which were challenged by a competitor. Counseled on related offensive strategy.
  • Helped successfully defend industry leader in $1 billion+ infringement suit.
  • Helped successfully challenge competitor’s patent in IPR proceeding (ending related litigation).

Activities

Community

  • Boston Intellectual Property Law Association
  • MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge
  • Boston Bar Association
  • American Intellectual Property Law Association
  • Frequent speaker on patent related issues at technical conferences (e.g., Strategies in Light, Phosphor Global Summit)
  • Community Member - MIT Materials Science & Engineering Department

Wolf Greenfield

  • President and Managing Partner (2024-present)
  • Chemistry & Materials Technologies Practice Chair (2017-present)
  • Executive Committee Member (2016-2022)
  • Strategic Planning Group Member (2010, 2015 (Chair), 2020)

Recognition

  • Repeatedly named to the list of Massachusetts Super Lawyers for his work in the field of intellectual property law
  • Repeatedly named to The Best Lawyers in America®
  • Recognized for excellent client care and quality of service by the 2018 Client Choice Awards

Recent News

See All News
2024 2023 2022 2019
Top