Dustin Knight

Dustin is a skilled intellectual property litigator with extensive experience in high-stakes bet-the-company litigation in federal court, including the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Dustin has a strong track of success both inside and outside the courtroom, assisting medical device and tech companies in complex matters. He has appeared for both plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of matters, including patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation, breach of contract and antitrust violations. Examples of Dustin’s representative matters in the medical device sector include spinal implants, insulin delivery, robotic ambulation therapies, automated cell manufacturing, advanced radiation treatment systems, flow cytometry and other products and services at the intersection of medicine, engineering and tech.

Dustin has been recognized multiple times on The American Lawyer’s Litigation Daily Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs list and Law360’s Legal Lions of the Week list for his successful representation of medical device companies. Patexia has identified him as a top-ranked inter partes review (IPR) practitioner at the USPTO.

Before joining Cooley, Dustin served as a judicial law clerk to Judge Roderick C. Young and a judicial extern to Judge Robert E. Payne, both of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He authored an article, published in the University of Richmond Law Review, arguing for extraterritorial application of the patent exhaustion doctrine, an extension of the doctrine later adopted by the US Supreme Court. Dustin also served as an American Civil Liberties Union legal observer and a board of elections poll worker in New York and Virginia during and before law school.

Dustin’s representative intellectual property matters include:

• Overturning a preliminary injunction at the Federal Circuit for an insulin patch company in a trade secret misappropriation and patent infringement matter
• Securing a complete victory and significant judgment for an ocular implant company in a patent infringement jury trial
• Representing an artificial intelligence-based identity management company in a jury trial involving trade secret misappropriation and patent infringement claims, resulting in a favorable post-trial settlement
• Defeating antitrust violations, inequitable conduct and correction of inventorship counterclaims at the motion to dismiss stage for a medical device company involving robotic gate therapies
• Securing a complete victory in a patent infringement jury trial for a spinal implant company
• Successfully defending against IPR challenges to spinal implant patents, resulting in Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) final written decisions confirming the patentability of all claims
• Winning a summary judgment of noninfringement in a multipatent litigation for a liquid cooling company and its customers
• Successfully defending against IPR challenges to several liquid cooling patents at the PTAB, including overturning an adverse decision at the Federal Circuit opposed to the USPTO Office of the Solicitor
• Obtaining dismissal of patent infringement claims at the motion to dismiss stage for a chemical company under the failure to properly plead standard
• Defeating antitrust violation and business tort counterclaims at the motion to dismiss stage for an energy storage company in a trade secret misappropriation and breach-of-contract litigation
• Obtaining institution of five IPR petitions for a home security device company, resulting in settlement
• Securing a complete defense verdict in a jury trial for a home security device company

Pro bono and community service

Dustin serves on Cooley’s pro bono committee and maintains a healthy pro bono practice. He has promoted American innovation in his community for years, serving as a judge for the annual RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals and regularly advising small businesses on intellectual property matters at pro bono clinics in the Washington, DC, area. He also assists the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project with screening case files for claims of actual innocence and potential Brady violations.

Dustin brings his enthusiasm for intellectual property to the next generation of lawyers through mentoring, speaking on intellectual property-related topics at law schools, and serving as a judge at mock trial, moot court and legal writing competitions in the Virginia area.

Publications and speaking engagements

• Speaker, “IP Litigation Training Series: Fact Discovery,” Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE), March 2025
• Speaker, “IP Litigation Training Series: Fact Discovery,” MCLE, February 2024
• Speaker, “IP Litigation Training Series: Pretrial,” MCLE, December 2023
• Co-author, “Uncertain Copyright and Patent Protections in the AI Age,” Law360, September 2023
• Speaker, “IP Litigation Preparedness,” Webinar, 2022 – 2023
• Speaker, “IP Litigation Training Series: Summary Judgment,” MCLE, 2021
• Speaker, “Best Practices in Inter Partes Review,” MCLE, 2020
• Speaker, “The § 102(b) On Sale Bar After Helsinn,” MCLE, 2019