Intellectual Property
Apr. 19, 2012
Bryan Wahl
See more on Bryan WahlKnobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear LLP Irvine Patent prosecutor/portfolio manager
It wasn't until Wahl received his medical degree and was doing a residency in internal medicine that he realized he might want to change careers.
"I thought, why not doing something totally unique?" he recalled. "So I ended up going to law school and doing intellectual property."
He still practices medicine, taking on one or two shifts a week at a local hospital. He'll go in at 5 p.m. and work the overnight shift, keeping an eye on patients and serving as their primary physician during their stay.
When he finishes at 9 a.m., he makes his way back to his office at Knobbe Martens, where he helps medical device companies obtain patents on groundbreaking technologies - ones he might get a chance to use someday in the emergency room.
"It's nice to be involved in both sides of the medical industry," he said. "I'm helping patients, and I'm helping my clients patent the next medical devices."
Recently, he's done just that for several startup biotechnology companies. He represented Embrella Cardiovascular Inc., which developed a device for preventing strokes during cardiovascular procedures. Embrella was acquired last March by Edwards Lifesciences Corp. for $43 million.
Wahl also worked with OrthoScan Inc. in obtaining patents for its X-ray technologies. That client was also acquired last year by German conglomerate Aton GmbH for an undisclosed amount.
It was a "nice achievement," he said, to see both clients earn significant sums reflecting the strength of their intellectual property. "That's always gratifying."
An additional two medical device startup clients both obtained multimillion dollar funding investments last year.
Though Wahl considered pursuing the life of a stockbroker at a young age, he's glad to have landed where he did. And his breadth of experience and education, he said, only makes it more interesting.
"The cool thing is talking to my clients, a lot of whom are engineers but a lot of whom are physicians, too," he said. "We have a similar background, and it's nice to speak that same medical language."
- ERICA E. PHILLIPS
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