Robert P. Hart

Robert P. Hart helps companies protect and commercialize technology through patent prosecution, portfolio strategy, licensing, and corporate counseling. A registered patent attorney and co-founder of AddyHart, Robert brings more than thirty years of private-practice and in-house experience to advising companies throughout their development—from formation and early financing through product commercialization, strategic transactions, and enforcement. 

Robert has a multidisciplinary technical background encompassing chemical and petroleum engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science. Before entering law, he worked in the petroleum industry. His engineering experience enables him to understand complex technologies, communicate effectively with inventors, and translate technical innovations into patent applications and claims directed to the client’s commercial objectives. 

His patent prosecution work spans high-technology hardware and software, electrical and computer systems, chemical and industrial processes, petroleum technologies, consumer products, sporting goods, and service-based innovations. Robert counsels clients on invention identification, application drafting and prosecution, portfolio development, patent clearance, and the coordination of intellectual-property strategy with product development and market entry. 

Robert’s prosecution advice is informed by substantial experience in licensing, technology transactions, litigation, and appeals. He has negotiated patent and technology licenses, manufacturing and supply agreements, joint ventures, and intellectual-property provisions in mergers and acquisitions. He also has litigated patent disputes and represented clients before the PTAB and the Federal Circuit. That experience gives him practical insight into how application drafting and prosecution decisions can affect later licensing, valuation, claim construction, and enforcement. 

Robert is particularly well suited to advising emerging and growth-stage companies. In addition to patent strategy, he assists clients with entity formation, corporate governance, securities compliance, financing, commercial agreements, and acquisitions. This integrated perspective allows him to help clients build patent portfolios that support not only exclusionary rights, but also investment, partnerships, licensing opportunities, and successful exits. 

Robert earned his B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering, his J.D. from the University of Tulsa, his LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law from The John Marshall Law School, and his Executive M.B.A. from the University of California, Irvine. He is registered to practice before the USPTO and admitted before the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.