Houston · Texas
Houston device companies frequently begin inside a hospital system, with clinician inventors, institutional partners and long clinical programs. Robert Knechtel, a registered patent attorney who is also a physician and engineer, helps those teams sort out ownership early and plan a portfolio that lasts through regulatory review.
Houston's device activity is organized around the Texas Medical Center. TMC Innovation, housed in a former cookie factory, is home to the HealthTech Accelerator (formerly TMCx), which prepares digital health and medical device startups for clinical partnerships with TMC member institutions, and to Medical Device Labs @ TMC, which offers lab facilities to early- and mid-stage device developers. TMC Biodesign runs a year-long paid fellowship with a dedicated medical device track in which teams shadow clinicians to identify unmet needs. The Center for Device Innovation, a collaboration between Johnson & Johnson Innovation and TMC, opened inside TMC Innovation in November 2017 to support device development from concept onward.
Cardiovascular technology is a defining strength. In July 2024, surgeons at The Texas Heart Institute at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center performed the first human implant of BiVACOR's magnetically levitated total artificial heart as part of an FDA-approved early feasibility study. Procyrion, a Houston company, is developing the Aortix catheter-delivered circulatory support pump, which has received FDA Breakthrough Device designation. LivaNova, formed in 2015 through the merger of Houston-based Cyberonics and Italy's Sorin, maintains its North American operational headquarters in Houston, where its vagus nerve stimulation business is centered.
Academic engineering adds a different perspective. The Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies at Rice University focuses on collaborative device innovation aimed at expanding access to care in low-resource settings, with work spanning neonatal monitoring and medication dosing tools.
For patent strategy, the Houston model raises three recurring questions. First, many inventions originate with physicians and researchers employed by hospitals or universities whose policies may claim ownership, so title should be confirmed before a company files. Second, programs that pair startups with corporate partners or shared labs make it important to define in writing who owns improvements that emerge from joint work. Third, mechanical circulatory support and implanted stimulation devices tend to face long clinical and premarket review timelines, which makes patent term, continuation strategy and the timing of key filings matters to plan from the first application.
Patent Strategy Considerations
Inventorship is determined by contribution to conception, not by title or seniority, and a clinician who shaped the claimed solution may be a joint inventor. Where that clinician is employed by a TMC member institution, the institution's intellectual property policy may govern ownership. Identifying every contributor and confirming assignments or licenses before filing avoids defects that are difficult to cure later.
Class III devices that require premarket approval can spend years in clinical study and FDA review while patent term runs. Patent term extension under 35 U.S.C. 156 is available for qualifying medical device products, but only one patent may be extended per regulatory review period, so selecting which patent to preserve for that purpose is a portfolio decision best made early.
The Supreme Court held in Eli Lilly v. Medtronic that the 35 U.S.C. 271(e)(1) safe harbor extends to medical devices, exempting uses reasonably related to developing information for FDA submissions. A competitor's clinical testing may therefore not be actionable until commercial activity begins, which affects how and when enforcement options should be evaluated.
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 Houston-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
No. Patent prosecution before the USPTO is a matter of federal law, and registered patent attorneys can represent applicants anywhere in the country. Issues that depend on Texas law, including employment or institutional agreements and state-court disputes, may require Texas-licensed counsel, and we coordinate with local counsel when a matter calls for it.
Review the program or collaboration agreement for provisions on ownership of jointly developed inventions and confidentiality before sharing technical details. Filing a provisional application on core concepts before mentoring sessions or demo days, and keeping dated records of what the company conceived before the engagement began, helps keep ownership clear.
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