Kevin R. Budner

I'll research this attorney's professional background before drafting the summary.

Let me verify the two tracked patent cases and check for PTAB/patent practice context.

Specialty / focus areas. Budner's tracked patent work is narrow: both matters are 2013 patent-infringement suits by Intellectual Ventures II LLC against regional banks, asserting a shared portfolio of network and financial-services security patents — e.g., U.S. 6,715,084 ("Firewall System and Method Via Feedback From Broad-Scope Monitoring for Intrusion Detection"), 6,826,694 ("High Resolution Access Control"), 5,745,574 ("Security Infrastructure for Electronic Transactions"), 6,314,409 (digital-property access/distribution), and 7,634,666 (crypto-engine). That is computer/network security and cryptography software, not Wi-Fi standards, pharma, or mechanical art. His published practice description and award history are built almost entirely around consumer protection, product liability, and mass-tort/class litigation (vehicle emissions, opioids, defective products), so patent litigation should be read as a peripheral part of his docket rather than a specialty.

Side preference. Plaintiff-side only in the tracked data (2 of 2), and specifically patent-holder side: he appeared for NPE/PAE Intellectual Ventures II LLC, not for operating companies. There are no tracked appearances defending an accused infringer, and no web-searchable evidence of a defense-side patent practice. Note that his plaintiff role is the NPE/PAE-side posture, which is atypical of his firm's broader identity as a plaintiffs' class-action firm.

Firm context. Partner in the San Francisco office of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, where the Intellectual Ventures matters were staffed by a Lieff Cabraser team (including Eric B. Fastiff, David T. Rudolph, Phong-Chau G. Nguyen, and Melissa A. Gardner). Before joining the firm he clerked for U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn. The reported honors, publications, and bar activity centered on class actions and consumer litigation are consistent with patent work being a small share of his practice.

Notable cases, outcomes, PTAB, and bar. The two tracked cases are the ones to name: Intellectual Ventures II LLC v. BBVA Compass Bancshares, Inc. (N.D. Ala. No. 2:13-cv-01106; Budner admitted pro hac vice, later withdrawn) and Intellectual Ventures II LLC v. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (W.D. Mo. No. 2:13-cv-04160). Both ended unfavorably for his client: the district court actions were stayed pending inter partes review and dismissed/final judgment entered for the defendants, the asserted claims were held unpatentable, and the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB (Compass Bank, 671 F. App'x 788 (Fed. Cir. 2016); Commerce Bancshares, 682 F. App'x 891 (Fed. Cir. 2017)). The district court denied the defendants' attorney-fee motion in the Commerce case (Sept. 2017). No PTAB/IPR or PGR appearances by Budner were found — in the parallel IPRs, IV was represented by Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, so there is no evidence he regularly appears before the Board. Bar/education: admitted California (2012), with admissions to the Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits and the N.D. Cal., C.D. Cal., and D. Colo. district courts; J.D., UC Berkeley School of Law (2012); B.A., Wesleyan University (2005). Sources: Lieff Cabraser attorney bio, State Bar of California record, Martindale-Hubbell, and the PTAB/docket filings cited above; the sources are consistent and no same-name ambiguity was identified.