Joseph R. Re

Knobbe Martens

Irvine

Patent litigation

Tackling tough intellectual property cases takes a solid team - and Re knows a thing or two about that.

After all, he grew up in New York City with 11 siblings.

"I like working with lots of teams," said Re, a Knobbe Martens partner who has been with the firm since 1987 and has spent a good portion of his career representing up-and-coming medical device companies. "I have a very active practice."

Now based in Irvine, Re earned his degree from the St. John's College of Law.

Re, who handles dozens of cases, is also set to become president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

He was drawn both to law and intellectual property early in life, and even earned an engineering degree at Rutgers University just to learn the basics.

"It's very important in our legal system, in our overall economy, and access to goods and services," he explained. "I love teaching non-lawyers about the patent system, and how it affects their everyday lives."

As a reminder, Re said the patent system is even mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.

Some recent case successes included a favorable verdict in late 2018 for his client Monster Energy. Monster sued Integrated Supply Network over trademark infringement and was awarded $5 million in punitive damages. Monster Energy Co. vs. Integrated Supply Network LLC, 17-CV00548 (C.D. Cal., filed March 22, 2017).

The case is on appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and will be argued this July, Re said.

''That shows you the breath of the trademark rights," Re said.

He represented Masimo Corp., who was sued by Physicians Healthsource Inc. for sending advertisements to doctors for a device that measures hemoglobin. Last November, U.S. District Judge James V. Selna of the Central District of California denied class certification of the case. Physicians Healthsource Inc. v. Masimo Corp. et al., 14-CV00001 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 2., 2014).

Re is also preparing for a "very hot and heavy" trial set for June in a Delaware federal court defending Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. against a patent infringement lawsuit by Guardant Health Inc.

The case deals with diagnostic tools for treating cancer, including using computers for DNA gene sequencing. Guardant Helath Inc. v. Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc., 17-CV01623 (D. Del., filed Nov. 9, 2017).

-- Karen Weil