Phoenix–Scottsdale · Arizona
Knechtel Law Group is based in Carefree, Arizona. Robert Knechtel, a registered patent attorney who is also a physician and engineer, works with device companies whose products depend on electronics, sensors and precision manufacturing.
Greater Phoenix's device base leans toward electronics and high-volume manufacturing. Medtronic, which established its Arizona presence in 1973, designs and manufactures microelectronics at its Tempe campus for implantable devices such as cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators, spinal cord stimulators and deep brain stimulators. Dexcom manufactures continuous glucose monitoring products at a facility in Mesa and later opened a regional distribution center there. BD Peripheral Intervention, which develops and manufactures endovascular devices for patients with peripheral artery disease, end-stage kidney disease and cancer, was announced as the anchor tenant of a new campus development in Tempe, and AZBio lists the unit at a Rio Salado Parkway address there.
The clinical and academic institutions are equally varied. Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University launched the Mayo Clinic and ASU MedTech Accelerator in 2019 to help early-stage medical device and health care IT companies scale to market. Barrow Neurological Institute at Dignity Health St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix has a long record of neurosurgical research, and its laboratories have contributed to technologies such as biocompatible embolic hydrogel and confocal laser endomicroscopy in neurosurgery. Downtown, the city-owned Phoenix Bioscience Core brings Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona together on one campus, including the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. Skysong Innovations serves as ASU's intellectual property management and technology transfer organization.
The Arizona Bioindustry Association, known as AZBio, is the statewide trade association devoted to the life science sector and works nationally with organizations including AdvaMed and the Medical Device Manufacturers Association.
For patent strategy, the Valley's concentration of semiconductor know-how, sensor manufacturing and endovascular development points toward inventions that sit at several levels at once: a circuit or firmware improvement, the device that contains it, and the clinical system around it. Claims should be drafted to reach each level where the invention supports it. Precision manufacturing also raises a threshold choice between patenting a process improvement and keeping it as a trade secret, and collaborations with academic medical centers and accelerators call for clear written terms on who owns what emerges from shared work.
Patent Strategy Considerations
An improvement in power management, sensing circuitry or firmware may be claimed at the component level, the device level and the system level. Each has different value against competitors and suppliers, and claims tied to specific hardware behavior are generally better positioned under the USPTO's eligibility analysis than claims to signal processing described in the abstract.
A patent requires public disclosure and expires, while a trade secret can last indefinitely if the information retains value from not being generally known and reasonable secrecy measures are maintained. Process improvements that cannot be detected from the finished product are often candidates for trade secret protection, while features visible in the device usually warrant patent filings. The decision should be made deliberately, before any publication.
Inventorship follows contribution to conception, so a Mayo, Barrow or university collaborator who helps shape the claimed solution may be a joint inventor, and that person's employer may hold rights through its IP policy. Agreeing in advance on ownership, licensing and publication review for collaborative work keeps the company's position clear.
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 Phoenix–Scottsdale-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
For USPTO matters, location is not a legal requirement: patent prosecution is governed by federal law, and registered patent attorneys represent applicants across the United States. For Phoenix-area teams, being in the same state can simply make in-person technical meetings more convenient. Questions that depend on Arizona law, such as state-court disputes, are considered separately.
That depends on the manufacturing and development agreements, and on who contributed to conceiving each improvement. Without clear terms, a supplier may assert rights in process changes it helped create. Agreements should address assignment of improvements, confidentiality and the use of your specifications, and inventorship should be analyzed before filing.
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