DeForest McDuff, Ph.D.
Partner
Phone: 919-446-5755
DeForest McDuff, Ph.D. is an expert economist with extensive experience in consulting, finance, education, and business. Dr. McDuff provides economic expertise as a consultant and expert witness in many areas, including economic harm (lost profits, unjust enrichment, reasonable royalties, loss of value, loss of reputation, and others), intellectual property (including patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyright), antitrust (monopolization, price discrimination, tying, price fixing), competition (economic harm, market definition, unfair competition, false advertising), valuation, financial analysis, commercial success, irreparable harm, and other areas.
Dr. McDuff’s consulting experience includes fair market value analysis, regulatory analysis, licensing, negotiation, pricing, business strategy, product launches, strategic analysis, and a range of other topics. His expert witness experience includes more than 75 expert reports and declarations, more than 50 expert depositions, and 16 trials in courts across the country. His expert opinions have been relied upon and cited by clients, courts, and government agencies. Dr. McDuff was named as a top expert witness in the United States for patent cases in the IAM Patent 1000 in 2020. Dr. McDuff co-founded Insight Economics in 2017, an economic consulting firm with more than 10 consulting professionals as of 2020.
Dr. McDuff is also a co-founder of Integrity Seminars, an online company dedicated to teaching academic integrity to college students since 2006. The company offers the Academic Integrity Seminar, which is a personalized online educational intervention administered to college and universities across the country to promote the importance of social trust and mutual obligation in personal, social, and economic relationships. Dr. McDuff has personally administered the Academic Integrity Seminar to thousands of colleges students over the past 15 years.
Dr. McDuff earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University. At Princeton, Dr. McDuff received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (awarded to 25 graduate students in economics nationwide each year) for his academic research in financial economics and applied microeconomics. He has published economic research in peer-reviewed academic journals and widely reviewed industry publications. Dr. McDuff graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in economics and a B.S. mathematics from the University of Maryland.
Dr. McDuff lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with his wife and four children. Outside of work, he enjoys distance running, playing music, and reading about social science and business.
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Dr. McDuff’s recent expert analysis and testimony include the following:
• Economic damages resulting from business impact, lost sales, unfair competition, and other conduct;
• Patent damages involving lost profits and reasonable royalties in a wide variety of industries;
• Class certification and damages in antitrust, false advertising, product liability, and other areas;
• Commercial success analysis in ANDA litigations and IPR hearings at the US Patent and Trademark Office;
• Blocking patent analysis for commercial success and other secondary considerations (i.e., analysis per Acorda);
• Antitrust harm and damages, including monopolization, Robinson-Patman, price fixing, and other conduct;
• Irreparable harm analysis related to potential product injunctions;
• Economic harm and prejudice analysis related to laches defenses and other areas;
• Trademark valuation and damages involving lost profits, unjust enrichment, and reasonable royalties;
• Trade secret misappropriation involving lost profits, unjust enrichment, and reasonable royalties;
• Damages for at-risk generic drug launches with hundreds of millions of dollars at issue;
• Regulatory compliance and analysis of fair market valuation (e.g., RESPA, business strategy);
• Economic analysis of licensing, negotiation, and strategic business decisions;
• Valuation methodologies for intellectual property and other assets.
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Dr. McDuff’s project experience includes the following:
• Litigation
◦ Economic damages
◦ Class certification
◦ Preliminary injunctions
◦ Irreparable harm
◦ Balance of hardships
◦ Benefit to society
◦ Economic harm for laches
• Intellectual property
◦ Patent damages
◦ Lost profits
◦ Reasonable royalty
◦ Trade secret misappropriation
◦ Trademark infringement
◦ Commercial success
◦ Blocking patents
◦ Long-felt need
◦ Copying
◦ Other secondary considerations
• Antitrust
◦ Market definition
◦ Mergers
◦ Monopolization
◦ Robinson-Patman
◦ Price discrimination
◦ Price fixing
◦ Tying
• Competition
◦ Unfair competition
◦ False advertising
◦ Market definition
◦ Competition analysis
◦ Actual harm
◦ Unjust enrichment
• And much more
◦ Valuation
◦ Financial analysis
◦ Business impact analysis
◦ Licensing analysis
◦ Royalty analysis
◦ Labor and employment
◦ Breach of contract
◦ Strategic negotiation
◦ Product launches
◦ Market projections
◦ Pricing evaluation
◦ and more…
Dr. McDuff named as Top National Expert Witness by IAM
The IAM Patent 1000 identifies top expert witnesses for patent analysis nationwide, stating: “Economic analysis often plays a crucial role in IP litigation, whether relating to the question of reasonable efforts in licensing disputes, commercial success in disagreements over patentability or most importantly, the quantum of damages to be paid for lost profits and as a reasonable royalty in infringement suits. Given the importance of patents as business assets and the significant sums at stake in compensation battles, choosing the right expert witness is imperative.”
IAM named Dr. McDuff as a top expert witness in 2020, stating that he “stays current on the law and has often helped to positively develop it by playing frontline roles in crucial cases…” and “really digs in to present credible, cogent analyses that move the needle.”
Insight Economics congratulates all experts named to the IAM Patent 1000.
What courts say about Dr. McDuff:
Below are excerpts from judicial opinions referencing Dr. McDuff’s testimony.