Prof. John McKnight
Partner, Spoor & Fisher, Johannesburg
j.mcknight@spoor.com 
+ 27 11 994 5102 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 almost 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.
Industry Associations
- 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)
Market Recognition
- Listed – IAM’s World’s Leading Patent Practitioners, 2011-present
- Gill Prize – CIPA, 2000
- Best Lawyers – Intellectual Property Law: South Africa, 2022
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
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