About the practice
We learned to draft patents by taking them apart
Ironclad Patents is a patent practice in New York, New York. We don't do real estate closings or divorces. We prepare, file, and prosecute patent applications — and we have spent three decades attacking and defending them in court: 28 bench trials, 9 jury trials, 17 appeals, and 23 USPTO trial proceedings. That combination is the whole reason this firm exists.
Engineers, then litigators, then drafters
You cannot sit for the USPTO registration exam without a science or engineering degree. That requirement exists for a reason: a patent application is a technical document that happens to be legally binding, and an attorney who can't follow your engineering can't write claims that protect it.
Every practitioner here came to patent law from a technical field first. When you explain your invention, you won't be translating it into layman's terms for someone who will then mis-transcribe it. You'll be talking to someone who can ask why you chose that tolerance, that material, that architecture — and who knows the answer is often exactly where the patentable subject matter lives.
We have also spent those decades on the other side of the table: building invalidity contentions, briefing claim construction, and watching well-funded patents come apart over a word nobody thought about at drafting time. Most patent attorneys never see that. Their files close at allowance and they never learn which of their habits produced a patent that held and which produced one that folded.
What we believe about patents
A patent is a business tool, not a trophy. Framing the certificate feels great. It doesn't do anything. The question we keep coming back to is what the patent is supposed to accomplish — deter a specific competitor, support a valuation, enable a license, create a barrier to acquisition. The answer changes how we draft the claims.
Some inventions shouldn't be patented. If the market window is eighteen months, if the invention is nearly impossible to detect being infringed, or if the prior art is stacked against you, we'll tell you — even though telling you costs us the engagement. We'd rather lose a filing than take money for something we don't believe in.
Claims are everything. A beautifully written specification with weak claims produces a patent that a competent competitor engineers around in an afternoon. Most of the real thinking goes into the two pages at the end.
Credentials
- Donald Rhoads, Registered Patent Attorney
- Practicing since 1989 — 37+ years
- Admitted: New York State Bar
- Admitted: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Trial practice: S.D.N.Y. and E.D.N.Y.
- J.D., University of Michigan
- 37 years in patent prosecution
You can verify any practitioner's registration in the USPTO's public practitioner lookup. We'd encourage you to do that for anyone you're considering — including us.
By the numbers
- 300+ patent applications prepared and filed
- 28 bench trials
- 9 jury trials
- 17 appeals
- 23 USPTO trial proceedings
- Practicing since 1989
Who we work with
Independent inventors, early-stage startups, and small-to-midsize manufacturers make up most of our practice. We're comfortable being the first patent conversation someone has ever had.
We also take over pending applications from other firms, including cases that have gone final or been abandoned.
Technical coverage
Fields we work in
Patent drafting quality tracks closely with how well the drafter understands the technology. These are the areas where we can genuinely say we do.
- Mechanical engineering
- Industrial & product design
- Software & computer-implemented inventions
- Electrical engineering & electronics
- Medical devices
- Consumer products
- Manufacturing & process engineering
- Materials science
- Robotics & automation
- Clean energy & power systems
- Agricultural equipment
- Automotive & transportation
Biotech and pharmaceutical applications require specialized expertise we don't claim. If that's your field, tell us — we'll refer you to someone whose background actually fits rather than learning on your dime.
Working with us
What you can expect
- A flat fee, agreed in writing before work starts. Hourly billing on patent work creates an incentive we don't want. You'll know the number up front, and if scope changes we'll re-quote rather than surprise you.
- The person who talks to you is the person who drafts it. Your invention doesn't get explained once and then handed to an associate who never spoke with you.
- Straight answers, including unwelcome ones. If the prior art is bad, if the claim scope you want isn't achievable, if the patent won't do what you're hoping — you'll hear it early, when it's still cheap to change course.
- Deadlines tracked in a real docket system. Patent deadlines are unforgiving and many cannot be extended at any price. Every date on your matter is calendared with multiple advance reminders.
- Plain English. The application will be full of legal and technical formalism because it has to be. Our explanations to you won't be.
Let's talk
The first conversation is free
Tell us what you've built. We'll tell you honestly whether it's worth protecting, what it would cost, and what the realistic timeline looks like.