Richard Bemben

Richard M. Bemben is a Director and Co-Chair of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Practice at Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox, where he focuses on patent litigation and post-grant proceedings. His practice primarily involves computer and electrical technologies, including microelectronics and semiconductor fabrication, networking and mobile communications, software, green technologies (GreenTech) such as electric vehicle charging systems and battery energy storage systems, financial technologies (FinTech), and medical technologies (MedTech). He has a strong preference for defending operating companies, with all his tracked appearances being on the defendant side.

Bemben is a recognized leader in post-grant proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, having been counsel in over 150 PTAB proceedings—including inter partes reviews (IPRs), post-grant reviews (PGRs), and covered business method (CBM) reviews—over the last decade. He has also handled more than a dozen related Federal Circuit appeals. In 2023, Patexia ranked him as the 2nd Best Performing PTAB Attorney Representing Patent Owners and within the Top 50 Best Performing PTAB Attorneys Overall. He frequently speaks and publishes on patent and PTAB-related topics, including serving as Co-Editor of Sterne Kessler's "2023 PTAB Year in Review: Analysis & Trends" report and contributing to "Patent Office Litigation, Second Edition".

A notable case in his portfolio is Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. v. Netlist, Inc., where he served as lead counsel for defendant Netlist. In a significant PTAB victory for Netlist in December 2024, the PTAB upheld Netlist's U.S. Patent No. 10,268,608, finding it not invalid. This patent was part of a jury verdict in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, where Netlist won a $118 million damages award against Samsung. However, a Federal Circuit panel later affirmed the unpatentability finding for this patent in June 2026, extinguishing Netlist's enforceable rights under it. Bemben also engages in worldwide patent portfolio development, pre-suit demand letters, freedom-to-operate studies, and defensive strategies for clients.

Prior to joining Sterne Kessler, Bemben served as a patent examiner at the USPTO for approximately six years, examining utility patent applications related to digital cameras, image sensors, optics, image processing, mobile devices, and medical devices, providing him with valuable insight into patent prosecution and post-grant matters. He earned his J.D., with honors, from The George Washington University Law School as a Thurgood Marshall Scholar, and holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.S., magna cum laude, in Computer Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and with the United States Patent & Trademark Office, and Virginia.