Diane Hughes Dobrea

Profile

Diane Hughes Dobrea is a registered patent attorney and a member of the McNees Intellectual Property Group and Patent Division. With over 30 years of experience, she brings a strategic, business-focused approach to helping clients protect, commercialize, and manage their intellectual property portfolios to maximize value.

As an intellectual property (IP) lawyer, Diane supports a diverse range of clients—including solo inventors, entrepreneurs, private companies, research institutions, and nonprofit organizations—across a global span of patent, trademark matters, copyright and trade secret matters. Her IP practice includes strategy development, application drafting and prosecution, and portfolio management for both domestic and international filings. She also conducts due diligence and freedom-to-operate analyses, and prepares legal opinions to support innovation and commercialization, and supports clients in IP dispute resolution and litigation. Her technical areas of focus are in industries that include medical devices and related technology, biotechnology, cosmetics and cosmeceuticals, formulation chemistry, materials science, nanotechnology, protective athletic gear, and consumer products.

As a compliment to her IP work, Diane has a significant transactional practice, negotiating, drafting, and enforcing confidentiality, material transfer, commercial supply, licensing, joint development, joint venture, and other commercial engagement and strategic agreements. She also advises on and helps clients secure and manage private and government funding, including private investments as well as federal SBIR/STTR grants and contracts, and provides guidance on FDA regulatory and quality-related matters in the medical technology space.

Within McNees, Diane serves on the firm’s Futures Committee and its Inclusion and Belonging initiatives, helping to shape the firm’s long-term vision and foster a culture of inclusion within the firm and its broader community. She provides pro bono legal services through McNees’ Legal Equity Advancement Program, supporting businesses from underrepresented communities. Her pro bono work includes representation of nonprofit organizations such as Erase the Space, which promotes public discourse in education, and Form5, which develops innovative solutions for individuals with limb differences—where she also serves on the Board of Directors.

Diane is a frequent speaker and panelist at inventor and entrepreneur events in Columbus, and since 2019, has regularly sponsored, judged, and spoken at Cleveland State University’s “BEST Medicine” program. Personally impacted by autism in her family, she actively supports autism-related initiatives at The Ohio State University and throughout Central Ohio. In addition, she is a passionate volunteer and donor supporting youth and community programs through the Salvation Army, including serving as an instructor in self-defense and taekwondo.