Louis J. Knobbe, Esq. is an accomplished intellectual property attorney and dispute resolution professional with more than 50 years of experience serving a worldwide roster of clients, including public and private companies at various stages of growth, from start-up to Fortune 500. His ADR practice centers on issues involving patents, trademarks, copyrights, unfair competition, trade secrets, and right of publicity, and contract disputes involving technology including medical devices, telecommunications, computer systems, and software.
ADR Experience and Qualifications
- Served as settlement officer and as a patent expert in patent infringement actions
- Served as Special Master in Superior Court trademark and trade secret actions
- Served as an arbitrator in a number of arbitrations administered by the American Arbitration Association concerning breach of contract matters involving medical devices, computer system development, and software development
Representative Matters
Business/Commercial
- Telecommunications
- Settled claimed breach of development agreement for computer developed for large European company for use in international telecommunications field
- Arbitrated large number of cases involving alleged breaches of computer and software development agreements
- Arbitrated claim by a large retail organization that a sales and record keeping computer system had been improperly designed
- Arbitrated claim that an individual computer developer failed to timely fulfill his duties under a development agreement
- Medical Devices: Arbitrated $150 million claim for failure to meet contract performance specifications for development of an x-ray apparatus
Intellectual Property
- Patent:
- Settled infringement of design patents disputes
- Settled disputes concerning infringement of patents covering telecommunication systems for monitoring remote locations of oil and gas production sites
- Settled dispute concerning infringement of a patent covering an amusement ride braking system
- Represented party in dispute concerning infringement of a patent covering a medical drug infusion system
- Represented party in dispute concerning infringement of patents covering prosthetic heart valves
- Represented party in dispute concerning infringement of patents covering a blood oxygenator for use during open heart surgery
- Represented party in dispute concerning infringement of a patent covering computer checking system
- Represented party in dispute concerning infringement of a patent covering a fire alarm apparatus
- Represented party in dispute concerning infringement of a patent covering electronic printer technology
- Trade Secrets:
- Settled multiple disputes between employers and employees regarding ownership of patents and trade secrets
- Settled dispute between employer and former employees regarding misappropriation of trade secrets relating to customer lists, confidential terms, and condition of sales agreements and source agreements
- Trademark:
- Settled dispute between restaurant franchiser and alleged infringer who claimed prior right to use registered trademark
- Settled multiple disputes over trademark infringement in the fast food industry
- Settled disputes between franchisers and franchisees in the food and automobile fields
- Settled dispute over trademark used for glucose tolerance testing beverage
- Copyright:
- Settled disputes between publishers and authors over rights to modify copyrighted works and right to assign copyrights
- Unfair Competition:
- Settled dispute over use of drawing of public figure on a widely sold consumer item
- Settled disputes over use of trade dress for restaurant interior fixtures
- Settled dispute over use of trade dress for builders hardware
