Denver–Boulder · Colorado
Front Range device companies often pair hardware, single-use disposables and control software in one system. Robert Knechtel, a registered patent attorney with medical and engineering training, helps teams protect each layer of that system deliberately.
Colorado's device history is anchored in companies that have been building complex systems in the Denver and Boulder area for decades. Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies, which began in 1964 as COBE Laboratories, is headquartered in Lakewood and works in blood component collection, therapeutic apheresis and cellular technologies. Medtronic has maintained a Colorado presence for roughly fifty years; in 2021 it broke ground on an innovation campus in Lafayette intended to house research and development and administrative staff from its Boulder and Louisville sites, with manufacturing remaining in those two cities.
The research base is split between two campuses. State economic development materials describe the Fitzsimons Life Science District and the adjacent Anschutz Medical Campus as the center of the region's life science activity, and they note that the large majority of Colorado's bioscience firms sit along the Front Range. CU Innovations at CU Anschutz commercializes biomedical technologies, including medical devices, diagnostics and research tools. In Boulder, Venture Partners at CU Boulder supports researchers with intellectual property management, translational grants, a startup accelerator and SBIR/STTR proposal assistance, and it works alongside an affiliated venture fund that invests in CU Boulder startups.
The Colorado BioScience Association represents companies across medical devices, diagnostics, digital health and biotechnology, and it hosts an annual Medical Device Symposium covering FDA developments, business models and acquisition trends. The state's Advanced Industries Accelerator program, administered by the Office of Economic Development and International Trade, counts bioscience among its targeted industries and offers proof-of-concept and early-stage capital grants.
Those features shape patent strategy in specific ways. Apheresis, cell processing and surgical energy platforms are rarely a single invention; they combine a durable instrument, a disposable set and software that governs how the two interact. Portfolios that claim only the instrument can leave the recurring-revenue disposable, or the control method, open to design-around. At the same time, grant applications, investor showcases and university demo events create many opportunities for early public disclosure, so filing sequence deserves attention well before a team presents.
Patent Strategy Considerations
For system products, separate claim sets directed to the capital equipment, the single-use kit and the method of operation give a company more than one way to address a competitor. The disposable is often where commercial value recurs, so its interface with the instrument, its flow paths and its identifying features deserve independent attention rather than a dependent claim or two.
Claims directed to algorithms that run a pump, sensor or energy source can draw eligibility rejections under the Alice/Mayo framework the USPTO applies in MPEP 2106. Drafting that ties the logic to concrete device behavior, such as how measured values change flow, energy delivery or fluid handling, generally presents a stronger position than claiming the calculation alone.
U.S. law excepts an inventor's own public disclosure from prior art if a patent application is filed within one year, but that exception has conditions and does not remove the risk of intervening third-party activity. For Front Range teams presenting at investor showcases, pitch competitions or grant reviews, a provisional application filed before the presentation is usually the cleaner course.
How Engagements Work
Knechtel Law Group is based in Carefree, Arizona. Patent prosecution and counseling before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is federal practice, and engagements with Denver–Boulder-area companies are handled directly by senior counsel by video and in person as needed. Matters that turn on state law may call for local counsel.
Request a Confidential ConsultationCommon Questions
It is not required. Patent applications are prosecuted before the USPTO under federal law, and registered patent attorneys can represent clients throughout the United States. Matters governed by Colorado law, such as employment agreement disputes or state-court litigation, may require Colorado-licensed counsel, and we can work alongside local counsel in those situations.
Yes. Inventions conceived or first reduced to practice under a federal funding agreement are generally subject to Bayh-Dole requirements, including timely disclosure to the funding agency and a written election to retain title. Missing those deadlines can put ownership at risk, so the invention record, filing dates and agency reporting should be managed together.
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