Philip Wang is a partner at Russ August & Kabat, where he practices in the intellectual property and litigation departments. He specializes in patent litigation and PTAB proceedings, with a focus on high-technology. Mr. Wang was an attorney at Irell & Manella from 2008 to 2013 and Latham & Watkins from 2014 to 2016.
Mr. Wang’s practice centers on large, complex patent litigations. He has represented clients in the semiconductor, computer software, and pharmaceutical industries. He has trial experience before district courts, the International Trade Commission, and the Patent Office.
Mr. Wang is also a registered patent attorney. He has been involved in more than 30 PTAB proceedings. As trial counsel in an IPR, he successfully invalidated four patents.
In 2021 and 2022, Mr. Wang was named a Top 100 “Rising Star.” Mr. Wang was recognized as a Southern California Super Lawyer in 2025. Prior to that, he was recognized as a Rising Star from 2014-2023 in the area of intellectual property litigation and he was named an Up-and-Coming 100: Southern California Rising Star from 2019-2023.
Outside of work, Mr. Wang is a professional-level chess player. He holds the International Master title and is a former California State Chess Champion.
Honors/Professional Activities
- Super Lawyers Top 100 Rising Star, 2021-2022
- Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2014–2023
- Southern California Super Lawyer in 2025
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice Pro Bono Service Award, 2016
- Notes Editor, Columbia Business Law Review
- Teaching Assistant, First Year Torts
Publications
- Teaching Assistant, First Year Torts
Recent Matters
- Samsung v. NVIDIA (E.D. Va. & ITC): Represented NVIDIA in two multi-patent cases involving semiconductor technologies and parallel IPR proceedings. Won jury trial verdict of non-infringement and validity.*
- OpinionLab v. Qualtrics (N.D. Ill.): Represented Qualtrics in six-patent case involving online survey technology and parallel IPR proceedings. Invalidated four OpinionLab patents in IPRs.*
- Adobe v. Wowza (N.D. Cal.): Represented Adobe in four-patent case involving video streaming software. Obtained settlement after summary judgment hearing.*
- Infineon v. Atmel (D. Del.): Represented Atmel in 21-patent case involving microcontroller technology. Obtained settlement after claim construction ruling.*
- University of Pennsylvania v. Genentech (N.D. Cal.): Represented the University in patent case involving Herceptin®. Obtained settlement after defeating summary judgment motion.*
- Max Planck and Alnylam v. Whitehead Institute, et al. (D. Mass.): Represented Max Planck and Alnylam in multi-party dispute over RNA patent applications. Obtained settlement before trial.*
- LG Display v. Chi Mei Optoelectronics (D. Del.): Represented Chi Mei in seven-patent case involving LCD panel technology. Obtained settlement before trial.*
- Ermita Alabado, et al. v. French Concepts, et al. (C.D. Cal.): Led pro bono team in winning $15.2 million default judgment on behalf of human trafficking victims.*
*Represents experience at a prior firm.
Ben Wang is a partner at Russ August & Kabat. He represents clients in business and intellectual property disputes, particularly in patent trials and appeals.
Ben clerked for Judge Ferdinand Fernandez of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and Chief Judge George H. King of the Central District of California. He also served a three-year term on the Committee on Federal Courts for the California State Bar, and worked for the U.S. Trustee Program for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ben earned his J.D. from the University of Southern California where he graduated order of the coif, served as Executive Notes Editor for the U.S.C. Law Review, received the James Tam Award for academic excellence, served as a teaching assistant for Professor George Lefcoe’s Real Estate Transactions and Finance classes, and worked as a legal writing instructor.
The Los Angeles Daily Journal named him one of the Leading Intellectual Property Lawyers in California. The Los Angeles Business Journal named him one of the Most Influential Minority Lawyers in Los Angeles. Super Lawyers magazine named him a Rising Star, Super Lawyer, and Top 100 Super Lawyer. He is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell.
EXPERIENCE
- Headwater Research v. Samsung – $278,791,460 jury verdict of patent infringement and no invalidity in favor of client Headwater Research. Secure push notification patents.
- SPEX v. Western Digital – $552,727,428 jury verdict of patent infringement and pre-judgment interest in favor of client SPEX. The verdict is one of the highest patent verdicts ever in the Central District of California and nationwide. Encryption patent.
- Pavo v. Kingston – $13.7M judgment based on jury verdict of patent infringement, willful infringement, enhanced damages, and interest in favor of client Pavo. All issues affirmed in a precedential opinion by Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Memory device patent.
- SPEX v. Apricorn – $4M damages award after jury verdict of patent infringement. Encryption patent.
- Nanology Alpha v. WITec – 5% royalty damages award after jury verdict of patent infringement. Scanning probe/optical microscope patent.
- Mirror Worlds v. Facebook – Reversal of district court’s summary judgment of non-infringement by Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
- LG v. Conversant – Published opinion by Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, affirming claim construction by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in inter partes review proceedings, and that none of the claims was invalid under the prior art.
- Core Wireless v. LG – Precedential opinion by Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, affirming all issues in favor of client Core Wireless, including claim constructions, no invalidity despite no rebuttal testimony about prior art, and eligibility of the patents under Section 101.
- VIA Technologies v. ASUS – Favorable settlement for client VIA in USB circuit design trade secret misappropriation case.
- Neurovision Medical Products v. Medtronic – Favorable settlement for client Neurovision in nerve monitoring electrode patent infringement case.
- Core Wireless v. Apple – $7.3M jury verdict. Cellular communications patents.
- TQP v. Newegg – $2.3M jury verdict. Encryption patent.
- Clear with Computers v. Hyundai – $19M judgment based on jury verdict of infringement and no invalidity, ongoing royalty, and interest. Marketing patent.
- St. Jude Medical v. Access Closure Inc. – $27.1M jury verdict. Medical device patent.
- MTH v. FATTOC, LLC – Favorable settlement for client MTH in high frequency trading trade secret misappropriation case.
- Santarus v. Par Pharmaceutical – Favorable settlement for client Santarus in omeprazole/sodium bicarbonate patent infringement case.
- Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation v. Intel – $110M settlement for client WARF. Data speculation circuit patent.
- Peer Communications v. Skype – Judgment of invalidity in favor of client Peer Communications. Network communications patent.
- Zenith Electronics Corp. v. Thomson, Inc. – Favorable settlement for client Thomson in set-top box patent infringement case.
- Knowles Electronics v. AAC Acoustic Technologies – Trial judgment of no trade secret misappropriation in favor of client AAC. MEMS technology.
- Ben has also advised clients in cases brought by the FTC, claims involving well-known social networking websites, and antitrust, securities fraud, copyright infringement, and breach of contract claims.
Steven M. Siemens is of counsel at Russ August & Kabat, where he practices in the corporate and finance department, with a focus on real estate matters.
Mr. Siemens has extensive experience representing landowners, developers and lenders in connection with the purchase and sale, financing (including debt restructuring), construction, leasing and development of commercial, retail and residential properties.
Mr. Siemens’ practice also includes land use, entitlement and administrative law in the area of real property.
Mr. Siemens has represented clients such as Ahmanson Commercial Development Corp., Urban Pacific, Sovereign/Ring Management, Inc., Tribune California Properties, Inc., The Robert M. Bass Realty Group, Foothill Thrift and Loan, Michigan National Bank, The State of Ohio, PCS Development, Inc. and numerous individual property owners.
While at Hastings Law School, Mr. Siemens was a member of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly. He began his legal career as an associate at Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Tunney, and eventually founded his own firm, Kelly, McAuliffe, Siemens & Ryan (1985-1991), prior to joining Russ August & Kabat.
Mr. Siemens is a member of the Beverly Hills, Century City, Los Angeles County and California State Bar Associations, Business and Real Property Sections. He is involved in a number of community and political activities.
Neil Rubin is a partner at Russ August & Kabat, where he practices in the intellectual property and litigation departments. Mr. Rubin focuses on patent, trade secret and other intellectual property litigation, for clients in the computer security, networking, electronics, software and financial industries. Prior to joining Russ August & Kabat, Mr. Rubin was a lawyer at Latham & Watkins from 2006 to 2016, where he was a member of the Litigation & Trial Department’s Intellectual Property Litigation practice group.
Mr. Rubin has litigated patent, trade secret, copyright and antitrust matters in the district courts, International Trade Commission and before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, from the pre-suit investigation stage through appeal. He has helped his clients recover more than $1.7 billion in judgments and settlements.
Mr. Rubin also holds physics degrees from Stanford, Cambridge and Case Western Reserve Universities. He was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and attended Cambridge University as a Churchill Scholar. As a PhD student at Stanford, his area of research was solid state physics. Mr. Rubin was an award-winning teaching assistant, and his PhD advisor was 1998 Nobel Prize winner Robert Laughlin.
Mr. Rubin is active in community organizations and currently serves as President of the Board of Directors of Mental Health Advocacy Services, a non-profit organization that provides direct legal services to protect and advance the legal rights of children and adults with mental disabilities in the Los Angeles area.
Mr. Rubin was selected for inclusion in Los Angeles Magazine’s Southern California “Super Lawyers” from 2022-2025 and SuperLawyers “Rising Stars” in 2017.
Admitted
- State Bar of California (2007)
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (2010)
Recent Matters
- Intellectual Ventures v. Symantec – jury trial representing Symantec in four-patent suit brought by Intellectual Ventures; plaintiff obtained judgment of approximately 3% of the damages it had sought*
- AU Optronics v. Samsung – represented AU Optronics in series of cases before the International Trade Commission and the district courts involving a total of 20 patents covering display technology*
- AMD v. Intel – represented Advanced Micro Devices in patent and contract dispute*
- OpinionLab v. Qualtrics – represented Qualtrics in patent, copyright, and trade secret case brought by OpinionLab; brought Inter Partes Review and Covered Business Method actions that resulted in invalidating all challenged claims of four OpinionLab patents*
- Veritas v. Microsoft – represented Vertias Software in trade secret, patent, copyright and contract suit filed against Microsoft; obtained favorable settlement*
- Intellectual Ventures v. Capital One – represented Capital One in five-patent suit brought by Intellectual Ventures; all five patents dismissed or held to be unpatentable*
- Letsrun.com v. WCSN – represented World Championship Sports Network in breach of contract case concerning sports-related website; won on summary judgment*
*Represents experience from a previous law firm.
Matthew Rips is a partner at Russ August & Kabat, where he practices in the real estate and corporate and finance departments.
Mr. Rips’ practice focuses on the representation of developers and financiers of retail shopping, multifamily housing, office development and redevelopment projects. Mr. Rips combines his extensive business management and finance background with his legal expertise to represent a wide variety of clients including real estate investment trusts, pension funds, equity funds, private developers, lenders and others, in their endeavors as developers, owners, investors, buyers and sellers.
Equity financing is a key element of any development project. Mr. Rips has developed a finely tuned approach to structuring and negotiating the partnerships that provide such financing. In a wide range of circumstances, he has guided clients through the complexities of managing the risks and allocating the rewards of developing billions of dollars worth of real estate.
Public-private partnerships have become a cornerstone of urban redevelopment. Mr. Rips has successfully negotiated a variety of agreements between public and private entities, such as disposition and development agreements, ground leases, purchase and sale agreements, loans and grant agreements.
Whether converting an office building to residential condominiums or building a retail shopping center, developers face a multitude of risks. Through the use of contracts, insurance and other tools of the trade, Mr. Rips regularly works with his clients to manage the risks of design errors, construction defects, delays, accidents and related risks associated with most high end real estate developments.
Prior to joining Russ August & Kabat, Mr. Rips served as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer for the second largest vision insurance plan in the western United States. Mr. Rips guided the company through a major restructuring ultimately leading to a ten-fold increase in net income. Later, he negotiated the merger of the company with a major East Coast vision insurance plan, resulting in a combined enrollment of 6 million families and individuals.
Mr. Rips was recognized as a Southern California Super Lawyer from 2015-2025 by the publishers of Los Angeles Magazine. He was named a Commercial Real Estate “Visionary” in the L.A. Times Commercial Real Estate Magazine in 2021.
