Robert Frederickson III

Robert Frederickson is a nationally-recognized trial attorney and a leading expert on intellectual property disputes for life sciences, technology, medical device, and financial services companies. As a partner in the firm’s IP Litigation practice and co-chair of the Life Sciences Disputes group, he brings extensive experience to high-stakes matters of IP litigation and commercial arbitration. Robert and his team fought on behalf of Teva Pharmaceuticals’ preventative migraine biologic AJOVY® to secure a landmark jury award of more than $175 million against Eli Lilly. As trial counsel for Insulet Corporation, whose trade secrets had been misappropriated, Robert and his team won a $452 million jury verdict and worldwide permanent injunction — the biggest federal trade secret jury verdict ever. He draws on his deep industry knowledge, including dual degrees in economics and computer science, to secure better business outcomes for his clients, regularly representing and advising life sciences and technology companies on IP matters, from innovative biotech and medical device, generic pharmaceutical, and disruptive software companies. 

Robert earned his JD, cum laude, from Boston College Law School. He is known for his oral advocacy and examination skills in court and broad experience representing a wide variety of both life sciences and technology companies, and he has the distinction of arguing the first appellate case involving the patentability of inventions in the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Among many honors, highlights include recognition as a “Key Lawyer” for patent litigation by The Legal 500, 2021 – 2023, and repeatedly appearing as a “Rising Star” in Super Lawyers Magazine, 2013 – 2022, a distinction awarded to less than 2.5% of eligible attorneys. Robert devotes a substantial amount of time to pro bono work, including a partnership with the ACLU of Massachusetts and Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts to help ensure that people suffering from opioid use disorder can receive medically assisted treatment while incarcerated.

In 2018, Robert was selected by the firm to participate in LEAD Boston, a year-long program run by the YW Boston that equips leaders with the skills needed to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in their organization.

In addition to his trial work at Goodwin, from November 2011 to May 2012, Robert served as a Special Assistant District Attorney for Middlesex County. In that capacity, he prosecuted hundreds of felony and misdemeanor criminal cases and tried over a dozen jury and non-jury cases. He also argued countless dispositive and evidentiary motions, many of which involved constitutional issues.

Robert also devotes a significant amount of his time representing pro bono clients in a variety of matters. Robert has represented wrongfully convicted clients seeking exoneration through DNA testing through the New England Innocence Project (NEIP). He also has represented clients seeking asylum through the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project (PAIR).

More recently, Robert’s pro bono work has focused on lawsuits helping people suffering from substance use disorders. In 2018, Robert, along with other Goodwin litigation attorneys, partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts in a series of lawsuits seeking to ensure that people suffering from opioid use disorder are able to receive medically-assisted treatment while incarcerated in the Commonwealth’s jails and a prisons. The team successfully obtained the first court order ruling that blanket policies denying inmates suffering from opioid use disorder access to life-savings medications likely violated the Eighth Amendment and the American with Disabilities Act, in Pesce v. Coppinger, 355 F. Supp. 3d 35 (D. Mass. 2018). Robert also leads a team of Goodwin attorneys who have partnered with Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts in a class action lawsuit challenging Massachusetts’ law that permits the involuntary civil-commitment of men, who have not been convicted or charged with any crime, to correctional institutions for treatment of alcohol and substance use disorder.

• Recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a Future Star (2024) 
• Recognized as a top patent practitioner by IAM Patent 1000 (2023) 
• Recognized for his work in patent litigation by The Best Lawyers in America (2023, 2026) 
• Recognized in Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under Hot List (2021-2023) 
• Recommended lawyer for patent litigation by The Legal 500 (2021-2023) 
• Named a “Rising Star” in Super Lawyers magazine, an award given to no more than 2.5% of eligible attorneys (2013–2022) 
• Recognized for Excellence in Pro Bono as part of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s annual Excellence in the Law program (2020) 

• Speaker, “Protecting the Formula: The Role of Trade Secrets in Chemical Research,” ACS Webinar, June 2025
• Speaker, “Maximizing IP Value: Strategize Now to Win Later,” June 2025
• Co-Author, “EcoFactor v. Google unlikely to result in ‘tectonic shifts in the law,’” World Intellectual Property Review, April 2025
• Speaker, “IP Strategy and Considerations for Cell and Gene Therapies,” May 2024
• Speaker, “Cell and Gene Therapies and Section 112: An Overview of the State of § 112 Law and Considerations for Developers of Cell and Gene Therapies ,” Goodwin Webinar, November 2023
• Speaker, “When Old Becomes New Again — Creating Value with New Discoveries Based on Known Compounds,” June 2022
• Co-Author, “No License, No Chips, No Problem: Ninth Circuit Delivers Qualcomm a Win in Antitrust Case Brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission,” August 2020
• Speaker, “5G and SEPs on Appeal: Insights from the FTC-Qualcomm Oral Argument,” Goodwin Webinar, February 2020
• Speaker, “Game of Phones: How Our Smartphones Are Pushing the Boundaries of Patent and Antitrust Law,” Goodwin Webinar, June 2019
• Co-Author, “Examining Octane Fitness Five Years On,” IPWatchdog, April 2019
• Speaker, “Unlocking the Value of Data in MedTech: Protections, Pitfalls, and Strategies,” Goodwin Webinar, March 2019
• Author, “Federal Circuit Declares Questions of Fact Prevent Early Resolution to Patents Directed Toward Abstract Ideas, Laws of Nature, and Natural Phenomenon,” June 2018
• Author, “District of Massachusetts Adopts New Local Patent Rules to Streamline Patent Litigation,” May 2018
• Speaker, “SAS NPE Forum 2018,” March 2018
• Co-Author, “Working Out With Octane Fitness: Four Years Later,” IPWatchdog, February 2018
• Co-Author, “TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC: Supreme Court Tightens Venue Rules for Patent Cases,” May 2017
• Co-Author, “Is The Eastern District of Texas’ Reign as the Busiest Patent Court in the Country About to End?” December 2016
• Speaker, “Patent Litigation Before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation and in MDL Proceedings in 2015,” February 2015
• Author, “A Green Bird in the Hand: An Example of Environmental Regulations Operating to Stifle Environmentally Conscious Industry,” 34 B.C. Envtl. Aff. L. Rev. 303, 2007