Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP announces that Michael Fuller, Joseph Jennings, Sabing Lee, Salima Merani, Ph.D. and John Sganga have been named to the Daily Journal’s list of the Top Intellectual Property Attorneys of 2014. Both Jennings and Sganga were recognized among the Top 75 Litigators of Intellectual Property, while Fuller, Lee and Merani were named among the Top 25 Portfolio Managers & Patent Prosecutors of Intellectual Property.
The Daily Journal selects attorneys for inclusion on its list based on a number of criteria, including hundreds of nominations and staff selections, along with each nominee’s major intellectual property successes over the last year.
Michael Fuller manages international Intellectual Property portfolios for a number of major companies, including Maxwell Technologies, Inc., a maker of capacitor devices used in electric cars and buses, Illumina Inc., a company involved in gene array technologies, and the EO Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Fuller champions a patent strategy that not only protects a client’s products, but also ensures that competitors face roadblocks in making competitive devices. He also provides patent examiners with clear explanations of very complicated technologies in order to advance his clients’ patent applications at the U.S. Patent Office.
Joseph Jennings obtained a major victory for startup orthopedic medical device company KFx Medical in a patent infringement lawsuit against Arthrex, Inc., a major global competitor. Jennings obtained a jury verdict finding Arthrex infringed KFx’s patents, upholding the validity of the patents, and awarding KFx $29 million in damages. Prior to trial Jennings obtained summary judgment dismissing Arthrex’s claim that KFx committed inequitable conduct in obtaining the patents. An award of additional post-trial damages and interest increased KFx’s total award to over $35 million.
Sabing Lee helped medical device company Össur hf. obtain a favorable settlement in a lawsuit regarding its patented bionic ankle technology. After Össur filed an infringement lawsuit against iWalk Inc., iWalk requested and obtained an ex parte reexamination of the asserted patents. Lee and his team successfully convinced the Patent Office of the validity of Össur’s key patent, resulting in iWalk remaining permanently enjoined from re-introducing the version of its product.
Salima Merani, Ph.D. serves as lead counsel and global strategist for client Ulthera, Inc., a maker of ultrasound technology for noninvasive skin treatments. In this role Merani also directs foreign counsel on matters of patent and branding strategy. In addition to aesthetics companies, Merani also serves as lead counsel for global intellectual property strategy for several companies in the medical device space, including neurology, orthopedic and vascular. In 2013, she handled eight simultaneous litigation and contentious proceedings abroad. Her strategy simultaneously focuses on having close relationships with foreign counsel in each country, along with in-house foreign specialists at Knobbe Martens, and analyzing how a client’s case in one country will affect cases in other jurisdictions.
John Sganga successfully defended his client Nobel Biocare, the world’s leading dental implant manufacturer, in a patent infringement lawsuit regarding dental implant designs. The patentee was a dentist who sued Nobel and six other dental implant manufacturers. Two patents were allegedly infringed by both of Nobel’s most popular product lines, resulting in over $50 million in damages at stake. After most other defendants settled, Sganga presented unique defenses demonstrating that the patentee improperly used Patent Office proceedings to expand the patent scope to cover Nobel’s products. Both patents were invalidated on summary judgment, and the plaintiff subsequently dismissed the case against Nobel.
The full list of the Daily Journal’s top intellectual property attorneys can be found at www.dailyjournal.com.
Consistently ranked among the top intellectual property firms in the nation and worldwide, Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, LLP has over 275 lawyers and scientists nationwide and dedicates its practice to all aspects of intellectual property law, including litigation. Knobbe Martens serves a diverse group of clients from multinational corporations to emerging businesses of all stages. The firm is headquartered in Orange County, California, with offices in San Diego, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and enjoys an international reputation for excellence. More information about the firm can be found at www.knobbe.com.
