DLA Piper Canada welcomes Robert D. McDonald K.C. as counsel

DLA Piper (Canada) LLP is pleased to welcome Robert (Rob) D. McDonald, K.C., as counsel to our Intellectual Property and Technology group. Working out of our Edmonton office, Rob brings a highly regarded intellectual property litigation and enforcement practice, together with expertise in branding strategy, trademark protection and commercialization, and licensing and exploitation of all forms of IP.

Rob has litigated copyright, trademark, and patent infringement actions at various levels of court, and acts for a broad range of clients on domain name disputes, franchise and shareholder disputes, counterfeit goods, videogames and interactive entertainment, artificial intelligence, IT outsourcing and services agreements, and misappropriation of confidential information and trade secrets. He is a trusted advisor to clients with respect to all aspects of the protection, licensing, exploitation, and enforcement of their IP and technology. Rob also provides IP support with respect to mergers and acquisitions, cross border and international business, financing, and other commercial transactions. He has been recognized as one of Canada’s leading lawyers in the area of IP Law by numerous publications, including Best Lawyers in Canada, The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, WTR 1000 World's Leading Trademark Lawyers, and The National Post. Rob received the 2023 Distinguished Service Award for Service to the Profession, awarded jointly by the Canadian Bar Association and the Law Society of Alberta.

Rob has an extensive background as an educator and mentor for students of intellectual property law. Since 1990, he has been a sessional instructor of the IP Law Course at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, recently receiving the 2024 Pringle/Royal Sessional Teaching Excellence Award. He is an instructor of the Legal Education Society of Alberta Intensive Trial Advocacy Course and the Osgood Hall Master of Laws Program and has delivered IP lectures to the Faculties of Law at Oxford University, the MacEwan University Faculty of Graphic Design, the McGill University and IPIC Intensive Trademarks Course, the University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering, and Cambridge University as a visiting professor.