Ryan C. Richardson is a director in Sterne Kessler's Electronics and Trial & Appellate Practice Groups. Ryan's practice focuses on post-grant proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), as well as U.S. district court litigation and International Trade Commission (ITC) litigation. Ryan has handled almost one hundred contested cases before the PTAB involving technologies ranging from semiconductor fabrication and geographic information systems, to wireless communications. He is experienced in representing both patent owners and petitioners. Ryan also regularly represents both Complainants and Respondents across a wide range of technologies in Section 337 investigations before the ITC. He is an experienced litigator who has examined witnesses at trial, presented at Markman hearings, and tried cases before the PTAB. Further, Ryan has significant capabilities in the preparation and prosecution of U.S. and foreign patent applications for a wide range of entities from emerging growth companies to large multi-national corporations.

Ryan also specializes in a variety of Standard Essential Patent (SEP) related issues ranging from procurement to litigation, and also including SEP licensing with respect fair reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) obligations. Ryan’s SEP practice focuses on developing and applying strategies for both SEP holders and SEP implementers, as well as providing opinions relating to essentiality determinations and SEP patent pools. Ryan also  frequently speaks at industry conferences on SEP and FRAND issues.

Ryan has served as an advisor to associates participating in the PTAB’s Legal Experience and Advancement Program (LEAP), which provides associates with training and development opportunities in PTAB proceedings, including oral argument.

Ryan is a co-author of "Patent Office Litigation," a two-volume set focused on post-grant proceedings under the America Invents Act published by Thomson Reuters Westlaw. This book examines how the proceedings interact with other aspects of patent procurement and enforcement, and delivers practical analysis and advice.

Ryan also has experience in various other areas of patent law including opinion drafting (infringement and validity), due diligence investigations, and technology licensing. His technical experience spans numerous disciplines including wired and wireless communications, graphics processing, digital devices, semiconductor devices, electronic circuits, digital integrated circuits and design techniques for rapid implementations of very large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, MOS technology and logic. He also has experience in the technical fields of optics, electrical biophysics, passive, active, reflective and emissive flat panel display technologies, and signals and systems processing.

Ryan has participated in, and now works closely with, the People to People Student Ambassador Program and the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine (NYLF/MED).

Ryan earned his J.D., with a focus on intellectual property law, from the University of New Hampshire School of Law, Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property. He received his B.S.E in electrical engineering, with honors, from the University of Michigan.