Shawn McDonald is a trial lawyer whose focus is patent litigation. Based in the firm’s Orange County office, he also counsels technology companies on the development and management of their intellectual property assets. He has served as counsel of record in numerous patent litigations at the district court and appellate stages.
Shawn has litigated numerous patent infringement actions, both on behalf of the party enforcing the patent and on behalf of the party defending against a patent enforcement action. He has examined numerous fact, expert and inventor witnesses at trials in federal district courts and at the International Trade Commission. He also has briefed and argued several Markman hearings, and successfully has argued numerous case-dispositive and other motions in patent cases. Shawn has litigated in each of the most prominent federal courts for patent cases: the U.S. district courts for the Eastern District of Texas, the District of Delaware, the Northern District of California, the Central District of California, the Southern District of California, the Eastern District of Virginia, the Southern District of New York and the Western District of Wisconsin.
Before attending law school, Shawn was a product engineer with Siemens VDO Automotive. He has applied this technical training to patent litigation, patent prosecution and strategic counseling involving diverse technologies, including wireless communications, optical data transmission, implanted medical and dental devices, computer systems hardware, computer software, electronic power conversion, automotive fuel systems, gypsum wallboard, electronic dispensers, and telecommunications equipment.
Shawn is deeply experienced in managing complex discovery campaigns involving millions of documents. He has experience analyzing C++ source code and deposing fact and expert witnesses in source code disputes. He also has performed extensive IP and patent portfolio analyses in support of corporate deals.
Before joining Manatt, Shawn was in solo practice in San Diego. He was previously a partner at a large international law firm. Earlier in his career, he clerked to the Honorable Paul R. Michel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., the appellate court with exclusive national jurisdiction over appeals in patent cases.