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Joseph D’Angelo went to tour Italy looking for adventure and found a new career instead.
The Case Western graduate started his professional career as a software engineer, but somewhere between Rome and Florence he had a conversation with a newly minted patent attorney, who piqued his interest in IP protection. As they talked over espresso and tiramisu, D’Angelo’s friend told him all about being surrounded by inventors and immersed in innovation.
After the trip, D’Angelo went back to his job programming systems and writing software models—but for several years he found his mind going back to that conversation in Italy. “One of the neatest things in the world is to be constantly introduced to new innovation,” he says. D’Angelo was convinced that would happen in the world of intellectual property, and he enrolled at the Franklin Pierce School of Law.
Originally, D’Angelo assumed he’d head to a big law firm as a patent associate, but a summer job opened his eyes to other possibilities. He worked as a patent clerk at EMC Corporation and saw how the data storage and management company’s in-house legal team made a direct impact on the organization. Suddenly, the young law student had a new goal: he wanted to embed in a cutting-edge business, master its technology, and learn how to use the law to protect innovation and drive positive outcomes.
It didn’t take long for D’Angelo to realize that he and EMC were a perfect pair. There was just one problem—EMC preferred seasoned generalists to rookie subject-matter experts. As luck would have it, just before graduating law school, EMC had a change of heart. EMC realized that D’Angelo could save the company’s external spend by completing high volumes of patent prosecution work. In return, EMC would teach him everything else about being a lawyer and hire him as a full-time employee.
He held up his end of the bargain and benefitted as EMC led him through rotations in trademarks, inbound licensing, transactional areas, and more. “EMC developed my career by continually advancing me as an attorney,” D’Angelo explains. “They took me from a raw graduate and transformed me into an experienced and well-rounded attorney.” D’Angelo did such a good job proving the business case that he became the model for EMC hiring other fresh law students.
By 2015, D’Angelo was managing EMC’s Advanced Software Division’s intellectual property as a senior legal director. When Dell bought EMC in a record tech deal worth $67 billion, he stayed on to assist during integration and beyond.
After nearly ten years, D’Angelo was ready for a new challenge. He joined Acacia Communications as its head of intellectual property and established the company’s internal IP function. When tech giant Cisco acquired Acacia Communications, D’Angelo continued to support the Acacia business unit as well as provide legal support for Cisco’s other optical business units.
In 2023, D’Angelo joined Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) to handle all of the semiconductor company’s IP litigation. Acacia Communications, D’Angelo’s prior company, sold to Cisco for $4.5 billion; as of March 2024, ADI’s market capitalization was approximately $95 billion. That means D’Angelo gets to manage a greater depth and breadth of disputes. He also has the chance to grow beyond IP litigation and take on contractual disputes, non-employment litigation, and transactional IP work.
D’Angelo and his team must do all they can to ensure ADI can compete and monetize its innovations without putting its technology and trade secrets into the hands of its competitors. His hybrid experience helps. “My engineering background gives me a language I need when I talk to the business managers and engineers about our technology,” he says. “I can really drill down on the tech and understand the key differentiators that we need to protect to help the company win on innovation.”
ADI combines analog, digital, and software technologies into solutions that help drive advancements in digitized factories, mobility, and digital healthcare to combat climate change and reliably connect humans and the world. For example, biometric smartwear company Prevayl turned to ADI for its clinical-grade sensing technology and expertise in converting real-world phenomena into insights that help transform lives. ADI’s engineers provided the advanced electrocardiogram technology, temperature sensor, and advanced power management integrated circuits. D’Angelo and other internal lawyers protect the inventions that bring companies like Prevayl to ADI.
“My engineering background gives me a language I need when I talk to the business managers and engineers about our technology.”
Joseph D’Angelo
Several key moves have put ADI in a position of opportunity for ongoing success. In 2021, the company acquired semiconductor company Maxim Integrated for $20.8 billion to further strengthens ADI’s position as a high-performance analog semiconductor company. The demand for digital devices—which are powered by ADI’s products—is promising. The future is bright for ADI, and D’Angelo is committed to protecting the technology as the company continues to grow.
