Re, Joseph

Mr. Re is a nationally recognized trial and appellate attorney, having handled high-stakes technology cases in federal courts throughout the country for over thirty years.

Mr. Re's trial success before juries has been extraordinary.  In two of the most successful patent cases presented to juries, Mr. Re led Knobbe Martens trial teams to help the firm’s longstanding client Masimo protect its ground-breaking patient-monitoring technology.  In the first trial, a Los Angeles jury awarded over $134 million against Masimo’s primary rival, Nellcor.  Mr. Re successfully persuaded the appellate court to affirm the award and to order the entry of a permanent injunction.  Those victories allowed Masimo to settle the case, garner hundreds of millions in damages and ongoing royalties, and go public.  In the second trial, Mr. Re and his colleagues asserted Masimo’s patents against patient-monitoring giant Philips before a Delaware jury.  That jury awarded Masimo over $466 million and rejected Philips infringement claims for $169 million. The verdict was featured in The National Law Journal's "Top Verdicts of 2014" as the top intellectual property verdict.  After the district court upheld the verdict, and set additional cases for trial, the parties settled the litigation in a blockbuster deal where Philips paid Masimo $300 million and agreed to a multi-year joint marketing and sales program in which Philips would integrate Masimo technologies in its patient monitors.   

Mr. Re is also an experienced appellate advocate, often selected to argue appeals in cases handled by his colleagues and other law firms. He has argued dozens of appeals, the bulk of which were before the United States Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit on behalf of both patent holders and accused infringers involving all kinds of technologies.

Mr. Re served as the President of the Federal Circuit Bar Association and as a member of the Federal Circuit’s Advisory Council from 2005 to 2014. Mr. Re has also written and spoken extensively on patent law and federal practice and procedure. Since 1990, Mr. Re has been authoring appellate briefs on behalf of the American Intellectual Property Law Association as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court of the United States and various appellate courts. He is currently Second Vice President of that organization.

The National Law Journal has named Mr. Re one of the "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America" and as a "Winning Litigator." The Daily Journal has repeatedly named Mr. Re as one of the top "100 Leading Lawyers in California."  In 2015, Mr. Re was recognized as "MVP of the Year – Intellectual Property" by Law360. In 2004, The California Lawyer named Re "California Attorney of the Year." Mr. Re’s numerous awards and honors are detailed below. 

Before joining the firm in 1987, Mr. Re served as a law clerk to the Honorable Howard T. Markey, the first Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He became a partner of the firm in 1990.