Robert M. Harkins, Jr.

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Robert M. Harkins, Jr. — Partner and Managing Partner, Cherian Harkins Dunham LLP (Berkeley/Oakland, CA)

Harkins is a first-chair patent litigator whose technology focus, per his published bio and case record, centers on computer hardware and software, networking and Internet infrastructure, telecommunications and satellite/broadcast technology, data intelligence, and industrial/mechanical design. His most concentrated recent work involves Internet protocol proxy and residential proxy technology (the Bright Data/Luminati litigation series), digital in-camera filtration technology, digital video editing software, and air-mattress/pump mechanical patents. Firm materials also list medical devices, licensing, trade secret, trademark, and copyright matters, and ITC Section 337 work, as part of his practice.

His tracked appearances skew plaintiff-side (6 plaintiff vs. 2 defendant), and that pattern holds in his marquee matters: he has served as lead litigation counsel for patent owner Bright Data Ltd. in district court and on appeal, and as counsel for patent owners such as Optimum Imaging Technology and Team Worldwide. The "defendant" entries in his record are the PTAB proceedings (IPR2021-01492, IPR2022-00915) in which his client was the patent owner defending challenged claims, so his practice is best characterized as patent-owner/plaintiff enforcement work rather than a defense practice for operating companies. He is now a named partner and managing partner of Cherian Harkins Dunham LLP, the firm renamed from Cherian LLP effective January 1, 2026; earlier filings place him at RuyakCherian LLP, the firm's predecessor name. He spent part of his career as director of intellectual property and litigation at a Silicon Valley semiconductor company before returning to private practice.

PTAB work is a regular part of his practice, and the firm markets a same-team approach across district court, PTAB, and the Federal Circuit. Notable verified results: he was on the RuyakCherian trial team that won a 2021 E.D. Tex. jury verdict for Bright Data (f/k/a Luminati) against Teso LT/Oxylabs finding the asserted claims valid and willfully infringed, with a lost-profits damages award; the firm also obtained a 2023 Federal Circuit win for Bright Data against BI Science. On the other side of the ledger, he argued Bright Data's ten-IPR appeal at the Federal Circuit in Bright Data Ltd. v. Code200, UAB (Nos. 2023-2144 et al.), where the court affirmed the Board's invalidity findings on August 1, 2025, and panel rehearing was subsequently denied. He led the team that resolved Optimum Imaging Technology's six camera-technology suits against Sony, Samsung, Olympus, Fujifilm, Nikon and Panasonic, together with 12 related IPRs, via settlement with claims left valid, and firm press materials credit him as co-lead on the reported resolution of an $845 million IP dispute for Meishe, a Chinese digital video software company.

Bar and education: licensed in California since 1995; J.D., University of California, Davis School of Law (1995); B.A., University of California, Berkeley; M.S. in Electronic Commerce (with distinction), National University. Court admissions include the Federal Circuit, Third and Ninth Circuits, and multiple district courts including the E.D. Texas, N.D./C.D./S.D. Cal., and D. Colorado. Sources for the above are the firm's own press releases and attorney bio, IAM Patent 1000, Chambers, Super Lawyers, and Federal Circuit/PTAB filings; no independent reporting was found confirming the Meishe settlement figure beyond the firm's announcement.