Brian C. Horne

I'll research this attorney before writing the summary.

Now let me verify the tracked case and look for PTAB/IPR experience and details on his other verdicts.

Let me verify his education/bar details and the other major verdicts attributed to him.

Brian C. Horne — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Specialty / focus areas. Horne is a first-chair IP trial lawyer whose patent work concentrates in the life sciences and medical device sector, with a mechanical-engineering foundation (B.S., University of Central Florida, 1996). His docket includes pulse oximetry and patient-monitoring technology (Masimo), transcatheter aortic and mitral heart valve devices (Edwards Lifesciences, CardiAQ), and x-ray microscopy (Sigray). Outside patents he litigates trade secret, trademark, and trade dress disputes (Monster Energy/Reign, Victoria's Secret v. Urban Decay, Public Storage), and he co-leads Knobbe Martens' Trade Secret & Employment Mobility Litigation practice. The one tracked case in the structured data — Shanghai Jinko Green Energy Enterprise Management Co. v. Waaree Energies Ltd. (S.D. Tex., No. 4:25-cv-00532), asserting a TOPCon solar cell patent (U.S. 11,824,136) — adds photovoltaic/semiconductor-device technology, though that single appearance understates the breadth of his publicly reported practice. There is no indication in available sources that he handles Wi-Fi/standards-essential-portfolio or Hatch-Waxman pharmaceutical work.

Side preference. Publicly reported results show him working both sides of the "v." His trial wins for patent owners — including the $634 million Masimo v. Apple verdict and a $466 million lost-profits verdict for Masimo against Philips — are balanced by defense-side complete victories for Apple-accused Masimo products, Sigray (defeating willful infringement and trade secret claims), and Edwards. He does not appear to represent NPEs/PAEs; his clients are operating companies and innovators. This is consistent with the tracked data, which shows a 0–1 record (one defendant-side appearance as counsel), though that sample is far too small to characterize his overall practice.

Firm context. Horne has spent essentially his entire career at Knobbe Martens (Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, LLP), where he has practiced for more than two decades and has served as Managing Partner of the firm's Los Angeles office since 2022; he also sits on the firm's litigation and executive committees. No prior firm or in-house history was found in sourced materials.

Notable cases and outcomes. Most prominent is Masimo Corp. v. Apple (C.D. Cal.), where he led the jury trial team to a verdict of infringement on all asserted claims and $634,313,913 in damages — reported as the largest patent verdict of 2025, with the broader Masimo–Apple dispute also producing an ITC import ban on Apple Watches secured by other Knobbe teams. He led the Sigray defense in Carl Zeiss X-Ray Microscopy v. Sigray (N.D. Cal.), in which the jury found no willful infringement and no trade secret misappropriation and awarded only $785,000 in reasonable royalty against a $12 million lost-profits demand. Other reported results include the $466 million Masimo v. Philips verdict (National Law Journal's No. 1 IP verdict of 2014), a $70 million CardiAQ v. Neovasc trade secret verdict enhanced to over $110 million (No. 6 IP verdict of 2016), a complete defense win for Masimo in Apple v. Masimo (D. Del.), voluntary dismissal of all four patents in Aortic Innovations v. Edwards, and defense successes for Monster Energy and the artist Christopher Bauder (TTAB). Damage figures come from firm and firm-adjacent publications; I did not independently verify each verdict against a primary court document.

PTAB / IPR experience. His involvement with PTAB proceedings appears to be as district court litigation counsel in cases with parallel IPRs rather than as a frequent first-chair PTAB advocate. His name appears on Sotera-type stipulation correspondence in the Apple v. Masimo IPRs, and in Boston Scientific v. Edwards the court stayed the litigation after Edwards filed IPR petitions, contributing to a global settlement; credit for the substantive IPR work in the Masimo matter is attributed in firm materials to other Knobbe attorneys. No publicly sourced record shows him as lead counsel in a substantial volume of IPR/PGR proceedings.

Bar / education. Admitted in California since 1999; J.D., University of Michigan Law School, 1999; B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Central Florida, 1996.

Caveat: the structured appearance list contains only one case, so the profile above leans on firm biographies, AI PLA/Legal 500 listings, The Recorder/Los Angeles Business Journal coverage, and Managing IP reporting. Where a figure or role rests only on firm-issued press material, that is noted.