Robert Benson
Partner
Orange County Office
Taipei
For nearly three decades, Robert Benson has dedicated himself to helping clients resolve their most challenging legal disputes. Whether litigating multi-patent matters, competitor disputes, or licensing obligations, Robert blends his commitment to serving others with his legal acumen, creativity, integrity, and collaborative leadership to attain the best possible results for his clients.
Robert has handled a wide range of commercial and intellectual property litigation in federal and state courts, litigated Section 337 investigations before the ITC, represented both patent owners and petitioners in PTAB proceedings, obtained injunctive relief, and argued before the Federal Circuit. He has handled both offensive and defensive patent licensing and litigation, and has implement strategies that incorporate inter partes review and reexamination proceedings. His matters have involved technologies including semiconductors, graphics processing, mobile devices, computer hardware and software, medical devices, and countless other products and consumer electronics.
In addition to his domestic practice, Robert also leads Orrick’s Taipei office. In Chambers Global 2020, Robert is the only attorney ranked in the U.S. for Intellectual Property – Foreign Expert for Taiwan. Global corporations headquartered in Asia trust him to navigate the unique issues, claims, and defenses that arise in multinational litigation and cross-border disputes. Please click here to read his bio in Simplified Chinese.
Robert’s commitment to service extends beyond his professional clients. Over the past 20 years, Robert has established programs in Asia, Africa, and North and South America that care for hundreds of at-risk children and enable them to attend universities and launch their careers. He is the founder of Arms of Love International, a charitable organization that operates family-based homes for abandoned or abused children, and Love Forward, a charitable organization that provides a higher education for students who have experienced violence and other forms of abuse. In his recently published book, Love Forward, Robert shares the life stories of some of the young women and men who grew up in the Arms of Love homes, together with his personal story, to encourage and inspire others in their own endeavors. In recognition of his service, Orrick awarded Robert its Community Responsibility Award in 2017.
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A feature article in the Orange County Register, "A Global Embrace," traced his personal journey from being abandoned as a child to becoming an international advocate for children. He often shares his inspirational stories through articles such as the National Law Journal commentaries “Let’s Take a Broader Look at Justice” and "A Lawyer's Story of Giving and Forgiving," and "Why Are You Here? A Volunteer in Tohoku Shares the Journey of His Heart," published in the Asahi Shimbun in March 2012.
Robert is a founding member of the East Bay Community Law Center, which provides legal services to the low-income community.
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Robert has:
- Obtained summary judgment of non-infringement on behalf of a leading manufacturer of inkjet printers, resulting in the dismissal of the case.
- Obtained summary judgment of invalidity of all asserted patent claims in an infringement action brought against a leading printer manufacturer, based on anticipation, lack of written description and indefiniteness, resulting in dismissal of the case.
- Obtained a preliminary injunction based on infringement of copyrights in source code on behalf of the world’s leading supplier of controller chips for optical disk drives, argued an appeal from the injunction before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and obtained a settlement of $50 million.
- Obtained complete denial of institution of three different petitions for inter partes review, filed by Qualcomm, directed to graphics processing technologies.
- Negotiated a favorable settlement on behalf of a leading cellular phone manufacturer after obtaining a ruling of patent invalidity on summary judgment, following a nine-day Markman hearing in the Southern District of California.
- Obtained summary judgment of non-infringement on behalf of an Asian client in a patent infringement case filed in Delaware against more than 60 defendants.
- Obtained summary judgment on patent infringement and various state law claims in the Northern District of California on behalf of the world’s largest privately held company.
- Represented a leading medical device company in China in an offensive litigation in California state court asserting breach of contract and business tort causes of action; achieved a favorable settlement through mediation.
- Litigated a section 337 investigation on behalf of a Complainant through the hearing and achieved a settlement during the subsequent appeal to the Federal Circuit.
- Defended a leading ODM in Asia, which manufactures computers, monitors, televisions, and smartphones, in a significant breach of contract litigation brought by a patent pool administrator and achieved a favorable settlement through mediation.
- Obtained dismissal without payment in patent infringement actions filed by non-practicing entities.
- Developed and executed a litigation and licensing strategy on behalf of one of the largest health insurers in the United States in a 23-patent multidistrict litigation in the Central District of California involving hundreds of entities and accused systems and services.
- Litigated offensive and defensive patent infringement claims between an Asian manufacturer of Wi-Fi chips and a German competitor, resulting in a favorable settlement for the client.
- Prevailed on a motion to dismiss a patent infringement lawsuit that had been brought in the Eastern District of Virginia against a leading provider of digital video recorders.
- Obtained summary judgment on claims for contributory copyright infringement, violations of the Federal Communications Act and unfair competition that had been asserted against a manufacturer of cable television descramblers.
