Donald G. Walker ( Don )

Principal / Detroit Metro Office

A precision patent lawyer and proven engineer, Don is dedicated to providing the legal know-how needed to succeed in today’s mechanical and electromechanical industries. Don’s clients value his multi-dimensional intellectual capacity, delivered in both a personable and practical manner. A car enthusiast since his teens, Don continues to refurbish, rebuild, improve, tinker with, and modernize new and antique cars. He has owned, restored and enjoyed dozens of cars, including marques ranging from Porsche, to Cadillac, to Chevrolet, and Ford. Don is truly a can-do, figure-it-out, “intellectual property handy-man.”

For nearly two decades, Don has specialized in IP portfolio management, client counseling, and opinion preparation, as well as the preparation and prosecution of patent applications. An inventor/patent holder himself, Don spent more than a decade at Rockwell International as an Engineer, where he designed, analyzed, and tested automotive components and systems including brakes, pneumatic systems, wheel ends, trailer axle assemblies, and drive axle assemblies. Don understands first-hand the practicalities and challenges of real world component design and manufacturing. Whether working with inventors, executives or other attorneys, Don can quickly get to the heart of the matter because he has likely been there before.

Don strives to remain ahead of the curve when it comes to obtaining, leveraging and enforcing his client’s patents. His personal experience with product design, testing and production release, coupled with decades of protecting innovation, makes Don perfectly positioned to represent his clients. Don has worked on technologies that range from power transfer mechanisms, vehicle emissions control, air intake heaters and metallurgy; to internal combustion engines, control systems for mechanical and electro-mechanical systems and hybrid vehicles; to sheet metal stamping, casting, forging, fluid pumping technology, brakes, winches and suspensions.

Awards & Distinctions

  • Award for an Outstanding Thesis, “Efficiency Study of the Rockwell Leading-Trailing Shoe Brake”

Memberships

  • American Bar Association
  • Michigan Intellectual Property Law Association

 

Education

J.D., cum laude, Wayne State University, 1998

B.S.M.E., Machine Design, GMI Engineering and Management Institute, 1989

Bar & Court Admissions

Michigan

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office