Nashville · Tennessee
Nashville founders often build devices at the intersection of engineering, software and care delivery, where patent eligibility and early disclosure questions arise quickly. Robert Knechtel, a patent attorney, physician and engineer, helps these companies turn technical work into defensible patent assets.
Nashville is best known as a center of healthcare services rather than device manufacturing. The Nashville Health Care Council, a membership association founded in 1995, reports that more than 900 healthcare companies operate in the region, spanning hospital management, outpatient services, health information technology and related fields. For device founders, that concentration means potential customers, pilot partners and advisors are close at hand, and many products are designed with health system workflows in mind.
Much of the city's device-focused research activity centers on Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE) brings engineers, computer scientists and physicians together around robotics, imaging, image-guided interventions, machine learning and medical devices, with clinical applications that include cochlear implant surgery, deep brain stimulation and ophthalmic microsurgery. VISE pursues commercialization through spinoffs and licensing. Vanderbilt's Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization handles patenting and licensing of university inventions and supports startup formation through its VentureStudio.
Industry is taking notice. In September 2025, Nissha Medical Technologies, the device business of Japan's Nissha Co., announced it would relocate its Engineering and Innovation Center of Excellence to Vanderbilt's campus, and the facility opened in 2026. The university has said VISE's surgical innovation record first drew the company's interest, and the center is also home to EndoTheia, an endoscopic device startup led by Vanderbilt engineering professor Robert Webster that announced a partnership with Nissha in 2023. Startup support comes from the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, whose six-month Project Healthcare program works with high-growth healthcare technology companies, and from Launch Tennessee, which offers matching funds to companies that win federal SBIR or STTR awards.
For patent strategy, this environment raises distinct issues. Image guidance, robotics and AI-enabled devices depend heavily on software, where claims must be drafted with subject matter eligibility in mind. Pilots with health systems can create disclosures before an application is filed. And inventions licensed from a university arrive with negotiated terms, and sometimes federal funding obligations, that shape what a startup can do with them.
Patent Strategy Considerations
Claims to image-guidance algorithms, surgical navigation or machine learning features can draw eligibility rejections if they read as abstract ideas. Tying claims to concrete technical improvements, specific hardware interactions and measurable changes in device operation positions the application under the USPTO's eligibility framework.
Demonstrations, pilots and investor presentations can become public disclosures. The United States provides a one-year grace period for an inventor's own disclosures, but many other countries offer a shorter grace period or none at all. Filing before meaningful disclosure, or using confidentiality agreements, preserves international options.
A license from a university technology transfer office defines field of use, sublicensing rights, diligence milestones and cost obligations. If federal funds supported the research, Bayh-Dole requirements and government rights also apply. Understanding those terms early lets a startup file its own improvement patents in a way that complements, rather than conflicts with, the licensed portfolio.
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 Nashville-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
Not for patent applications or USPTO proceedings. Patent practice is federal, and registered patent attorneys and agents may represent applicants throughout the United States. Tennessee state-law matters, such as certain contract or employment questions, may require counsel licensed in Tennessee.
Often, yes, but eligibility is a real hurdle. The USPTO applies a framework that asks whether a claim is directed to an abstract idea and, if so, whether it adds a practical application or significantly more. Careful drafting that emphasizes technical implementation improves the prospects.
Not necessarily for U.S. rights. An inventor's own disclosure made one year or less before filing generally does not count as prior art in the United States. Foreign rights may be affected, so it is worth reviewing the timeline and filing promptly.
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