Prior BigLaw and In-house Experience
- Bracewell LLP
- Andrews Kurth LLP
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP
- Pravel Gambrell Hewitt Kimball & Krieger, P.C.
Licenses
- Admitted to practice law in Texas 1989
- Registered Patent Attorney 1990 (admitted before the United States Patent & Trademark Office)
- Registered Professional Engineer 1981-2003
Education
- South Texas College of Law – Houston, J.D., 1988 (Law Review, Order of Lytae, Phi Delta Phi International Legal Fraternity)
- University of Illinois – B.S. in Civil Engineering, 1979
Practice Areas
- Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks
- Copyrights – procurement and enforcement
- Trade Secrets – protection, assessment and enforcement
- Licensing and technology transfer of intellectual property
Brief Bio
Doug is an intellectual property attorney and registered patent attorney. Doug advises on all aspects of patent, trademark, copyright, trade dress, unfair competition and trade secret law. His strengths include patent and trademark portfolio analysis, patent and trademark procurement, patent invalidity, patent and trademark infringement/non-infringement and designing around competitor’s patents. Doug has been widely recognized throughout his career as a leader in this field, including being named 2025 IP Star – National and Texas Notable Practitioner as recognized by Managing IP, a publication of Legal Benchmarking Limited.
The Rest of the Story
Doug hails from a southern Illinois town of less than 60 where he attended a one-room parochial school through eighth grade.
He had a very successful high school and collegiate baseball career at Kaskaskia Community College and at the University of Illinois where he was captain of the team while focusing on his engineering studies.
Doug received Big 10 athletic scholastic honors and received interest from a few major league baseball teams, but it wasn’t meant to be. Instead, he pursued a career as a structural engineer for Texaco. While working for Texaco, Doug received a patent for an offshore marine structure. After a 6-year career with Texaco, including nearly 2 years in South Korea, Doug decided to go to law school.
Upon graduating from law school, Doug worked for an intellectual property law firm for 10 years before that firm joined Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. After 7 years at Akin, Doug subsequently worked for Andrews Kurth for 11 years and then Bracewell for 7 years before joining Grable Martin.
Even with his busy professional career, Doug has run 20+ marathons (including Boston) and 20+ half marathons. Still, his greatest joy is spending time with his three children and four grandchildren.
