Edward M. Roney, IV

Biography

Ed is Senior Of Counsel in the Raleigh office and a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property, Litigation, and Corporate practice groups. He structures and negotiates complex technology agreements—including semiconductor IP and supply/licensing arrangements; medical device development, quality, and manufacturing agreements; surgical-technique licenses; indefeasible rights of use (IRUs) and subsea cable landing/backhaul arrangements; satellite capacity and ground-segment contracts; and telecommunications and network-infrastructure deals. He also advises clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies across the full IP lifecycle—patent and trademark preparation and prosecution; portfolio strategy; clearance and enforcement; licensing and technology transactions; post-grant proceedings; and disputes in court and before the USPTO. He helps clients monetize their IP—often through creative contingent-fee and hybrid arrangements—and litigates a broad range of IP disputes, with most resolved on beneficial terms early in litigation.

A former telecom-semiconductor founder, executive, and named inventor, Ed brings business, legal, and technical perspectives to IP and commercial strategy. His patent work spans the telecom stack—from physical-layer signal processing and RF hardware to higher-layer software, networking, and information security—and extends to aerospace and defense, AI/ML/LMM, blockchain, clean energy, cloud/SaaS, IoT, manufacturing, medical and drug-delivery devices, MEMS, robotics, semiconductors, transportation, and water treatment. He has helped clients obtain patents across an exceptionally broad range of inventions, including RF transmitters and receivers; cryptography; fintech; novel AI architectures and training methods; AI-assisted inventions; applied AI for healthcare, consumer solutions, industrial optimization, and telecommunications/security; garments; medical devices and surgical techniques; industrial tools; blockchain; and metaverse technologies.

Ed builds robust patent portfolios designed to withstand diligence and litigation; conducts validity, infringement, and clearance analyses; manages IP due diligence for transactions; and represents clients in PGR and IPR proceedings before the USPTO. An active author and speaker on patent and antitrust IP law, he serves as managing editor of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Issues in Intellectual Property Law.

Prior to practicing law, Ed worked for Motorola developing baseband chips for its cellular handsets, and later co-founded PrairieComm, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company providing baseband chips and software to leading cellular-handset manufacturers. PrairieComm was recognized by Inc. magazine in 2000 as one of the 25 fastest-growing companies in the U.S. In 2001, The Wall Street Journal named Ed to its “Unstrung 25” for leadership in the wireless communications industry. He also holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering.