Daniel P. Hughes

I'll research this attorney before drafting. Let me run several searches.

Let me verify the Brain Corp matter and the PTAB/IPR footprint.

Daniel P. Hughes — Knobbe Martens (San Diego)

Specialty / focus. Hughes is a patent litigator whose practice centers on electronics, software, and communications technologies — a fit with his B.S. in Computer Engineering and with firm practice descriptions highlighting representation of "software and electronics clients in complex IP disputes" in district court and before the USPTO. His registered practice and reported matters span consumer electronics, voice/speech-recognition software (Amazon/Alexa), medical devices (Masimo), and electrical/mechanical IPRs; USPTO registration data also associates him with prosecution portfolios for wireless, semiconductor, and medical-device clients. He is additionally a member of Knobbe Martens' antitrust practice group and has experience presenting antitrust issues to regulators in the U.S. and abroad.

Side preference. The tracked docket skews defense-side (1 plaintiff / 2 defendant appearances), and that is consistent with his verifiable record: he has primarily defended operating companies — Amazon (district court and companion IPRs) and, per the tracked list, Brain Corp. His most prominent plaintiff-side work is as part of the Knobbe Martens team representing Masimo and Cercacor, and the one tracked plaintiff-side appearance is as counsel for Amazon in Amazon.com Services LLC et al. v. VB Assets LLC (a follow-on declaratory-judgment/IPR-appeal posture arising from the VB Assets v. Amazon litigation). On balance: a defense-oriented operating-company practice, not NPE/PAE assertion work.

Firm context and PTAB/IPR. He has been at Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP since 2014 (joined as an associate; partner since 2021) and is based in San Diego. There is no indication of prior firm or in-house experience. He does appear regularly in Patent Office contentious proceedings; his firm profile cites inter partes review, ex parte reexamination, supplemental examination, and inter partes reexamination experience, and PTAB records show him participating in an Amazon oral hearing as a Legal Experience and Advancement Program (LEAP) practitioner. His listed PTAB-adjacent results include Hammond Development International v. Amazon (W.D. Tex.), where he represented Amazon in litigation over eight patents plus companion IPRs and obtained a covenant not to sue after the IPRs were substantially complete, and a Horiba supplemental examination in which he preserved claim scope over newly cited art. Caveat: the tracked Unified Patents LLC v. Brain Corp entries (listed as defense-side, once as lead counsel) are not independently corroborated by the searches run here; Knobbe Martens' own attorney page does not list that matter, so treat that appearance with caution.

Notable matters. The headline work is the Masimo/Apple dispute: Hughes is named among the Knobbe Martens team that obtained a $634,313,913 jury verdict for Masimo on heart-monitoring patents in the Central District of California (Nov. 2025), part of a broader Masimo–Apple campaign that also produced an ITC import ban on Apple Watches. He is also credited with work on Masimo v. Philips Electronics (D. Del.), where the patent and antitrust phases resolved by a settlement in which Philips paid Masimo $300 million. On the defense side, the VB Assets litigation produced an adverse result for his client Amazon — a 2023 Delaware jury verdict of willful infringement and roughly $46.7M in running royalties (later adjusted and supplemented with an ongoing royalty).

Bar / education. Admitted to the California bar in December 2014 (Bar No. 299695); registered patent attorney (USPTO Reg. No. 76592). J.D., Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, 2014, cum laude; B.S. Computer Engineering, University of Arizona, 2011.