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Robert Kramer
Managing Partner
Kramer LLP
Rob Kramer is the Managing Partner of Kramer, LLP. He is is a passionate courtroom champion of his clients’ inventions, and is nationally known as among the very best and most experienced patent litigators in the country. He has been named by IP Law360 a “Legal Lion” for his lead counsel patent infringement jury trial victories. Rob practiced for 30 years as a leading patent litigation partner at large global law firms. In 2019, he was the national chair of the patent litigation practice at a top-tier global law firm when he moved with his team to practice at Kramer Alberti, a 21-attorney powerhouse patent litigation boutique firm.
Rob has been consistently recognized and highly ranked nationally for his lead counsel representation of inventors, universities and technology companies enforcing their patents against infringers. He was named to the elite IAM Strategy 300 Global Leaders 2025, and to IAM 300’s prestigious national list of the top 300 IP strategists in 2024 and 2025. In 2025, Lawdragon named Rob to The 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America, and recently he was selected again to The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America. In 2026, and consistently for more than fifteen years, he was peer selected as a “Northern California Super Lawyer” in IP Litigation, reserved for the top 5% of attorneys nationally. In 2024 and 2025, he was also named to IAM 1000’s distinguished list of top patent litigators, which described Rob as “enjoy[ing] a national reputation for his trial expertise, with wisdom distilled from three decades of experience.” In 2024 and 2025, Patexia’s Report of Best Patent Litigators also named Rob as among the top 30 patent litigators in the country.
Consecutively, in 2023 and 2024, Rob was selected by California’s premier legal publication, The California Daily Journal, to its prestigious list of Top Plaintiff’s Attorneys of The Year. “Robert Kramer has spent more than three decades fighting for innovators’ rights in intellectual property law, driven by a deep fascination with technology and a commitment to protecting inventors. As a leading IP litigator, Kramer has built a career defending universities and innovative companies against some of the world’s largest technology corporations,” reported The Journal (Nov. 20, 2024). Likewise, Rob has been called a “fabulous trial lawyer” who “won a complete victory for defendant in a six patent case” by The Legal 500 US, which described Rob and his team as being “consistently excellent” and creating “a comprehensive strategy based on patent knowledge, the industry landscape and opposing counsel.”
Recent Articles by Robert Kramer
Exmark: Reasonable Royalty Damages, Apportionment and Expert Opinions
While Exmark invites a more flexible approach to apportionment, allowing, at least in some cases, a focus on the royalty rate to value the patented invention, the rate analysis itself must be properly supported. Indeed, Exmark serves as a cautionary reminder that any expert opinions on reasonable royalty damages must be closely tied to the facts of the case. Damages opinions that are purely speculative and unsupported by the facts of the case are likely to be found inadmissible. As a result, apportionment approaches will continue to be case-specific, variously focusing on the royalty base, the royalty rate, or a hybrid-model involving both elements.
In Travel Sentry v. Tropp, CAFC recognizes broad scope of attribution under doctrine of divided infringement
The central issue before the Federal Circuit was whether there was a genuine issue of material fact that TSA’s performance of those steps could be attributed to Travel Sentry, such that Travel Sentry could be held singularly responsible for directly infringing Tropp’s method claims. Slip Op. at 13. The district court had answered this question in the negative… The Federal Circuit rejected the district court’s interpretation of divided infringement as too narrow and, accordingly, vacated its summary judgment of non-infringement.
Supreme Court Eliminates Key Defense in Many Patent Infringement Suits
In a strong reversal of the Federal Circuit, the US Supreme Court held in SCA Hygiene Products Aktiebolag v First Quality Baby Products, LLC, No. 15-927 (March 21, 2017), that delay by a patentee will not give rise to a laches defense during the statutory six-year damages period under 35 U.S.C. § 286. Justice Samuel Alito authored the 7–1 majority opinion, extending the court’s decision in Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. (2014), which held that laches is inapplicable for copyright infringement, a provision similar to Section 286 of the Patent Act… The Supreme Court noted that its determination regarding laches does not preclude a defense based on equitable estoppel…
Litigating Willful Patent Infringement in a Post-Halo World
After Halo, courts appear to be breathing new life into claims for willful patent infringement and enhanced damages claims. In fact, since Halo’s new standard took effect a few months ago, juries found willful infringement in three out of four cases where they returned a verdict of infringement. However, as discussed below, there are steps a defendant can take to protect itself against a finding of willful infringement.