Mr John McKnight > Spoor & Fisher > Pretoria, South Africa > Lawyer Profile

Mr John McKnight

+27 11 994 5102 j.mcknight@spoor.com

Work Department

Patent Chemical

Position

Prof. John McKnight is a Patent Attorney with Spoor & Fisher. He has BSc (Hons) and LLB degrees and is an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa. He is also a Chartered Patent Attorney in the United Kingdom, a European Patent Attorney and a Solicitor of England & Wales (non-practising).

With over three decades of experience in domestic and international patent and design matters, John specialises in the filing of applications in the chemical, biochemical and pharmaceutical fields, and related litigation.

He is also proficient in commercial transactions involving IP, including confidentiality, joint development, supply, licensing and technology transfer agreements.

As a former Deputy Head of Patents at Reckitt Benckiser in the UK, John has experience of both registered and unregistered IP rights in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) environment.

Career

John graduated with a BSc majoring in Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1990.  In 1995 he graduated LLB from the University of South Africa.  He graduated with honours in Biochemistry from the University of Johannesburg in 1997.

John began his articles with a firm of patent attorneys in Pretoria in 1992 and was admitted as an attorney in 1995 (with right of appearance in the High Court in 1996).  He was registered as a South African Patent Attorney in 1997.

In that same year he relocated to the United Kingdom to join the in-house patent team at Reckitt & Colman (as it was then known).  Following further study John was registered as a Chartered Patent Attorney in 2000, a Solicitor of England and Wales in 2002 and a European Attorney also in 2002.

John served as a Deputy Head of Department at Reckitt Benckiser until he returned to South Africa to take up the offer of partnership with Spoor & Fisher in 2004.

Professional activities

• Author of chapters on Practical Law in Cross Border Commercial Transactions (Thomson Reuters), 2018
• Lecturer for LLM students: University of Johannesburg, 2019
• Appointed as Professor of Practice at the Faculty of Law at University of Johannesburg

Market Recognition

• Listed – IAM’s World’s Leading Patent Practitioners, 2011-present
• Gill Prize – CIPA, 2000
• Best Lawyers – Intellectual Property Law: South Africa, 2022

Languages

English 

Memberships

• Fellow – South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law (SAIIPL)
• Fellow – Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA)
• Member – Licensing Executive Society (LES)
• Member – International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (FICPI)
• Member – Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg)
• Member – Law Society of England and Wales
• Member – Institute of Professional Representatives before the European Patent Office
• Member – Legal Practice Council (LPC)

Education

BSc (Chem and Biochem), BSc (Hons) (Biochem), LLB. Attorney of the High Court of South Africa, Chartered Patent Attorney, European Patent Attorney, Solicitor of England and Wales (non-practising).

Leisure

Reading, watching films and listening to music