Rob is a founding director of Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C. in Washington, D.C., a registered U.S. patent attorney, and Chair of the Board of The Sedona Conference. He has extensive expertise in AIA post-issuance proceedings and concurrent patent litigation, USITC 337 investigations, Federal Circuit appeals, EU and China enforcement, reexamination, patent monetization and licensing, and corporate intellectual property best practices for Chief IP Officers and Directors. In 2015, Rob was named by the Financial Times as one of the "Top Ten Legal Innovators in North America", and by Law360 as of the "The Top 25 Icons of IP". In 2014, he was named by The National Law Journal as an "Intellectual Property Trailblazer and Pioneer". He is Editor-in-Chief of Patent Office Litigation (2012), and Patent Office Litigation, 2nd Edition (2017) (Thomson Reuters). Rob has been counsel in more that 200 PTAB contested proceedings and has played a key role in precedent-setting U.S. case law, including In re Beauregard, (Fed. Cir. 1995), KSR (SCT. 2007), In re Jung (Fed. Cir. 2011, ETG (Fed. Cir. 2012), and Hear Wear (Fed. Cir. 2014). He has been at the forefront of software patent protection, having represented IBM in the precedent-setting In re Beauregard case that produced the 1996 USPTO software patent guidelines and delivered the seminal "AI and Expert System Legal Protection" presentation before AIPLA in 1986. Among many honors, Rob is the recipient of the Sedona Conference Award for Excellence in Advanced Legal Education (2004), the Sedona Conference Lifetime Acheivement Award (2012), and the 2012 Attorney of the Year "Good Scout" Award for his leadership in community service. In addition to chairing the Sedona Conference Board, Rob is a Chair Emeritus of The Sedona Conference's Working Group 10 on Patent Litigation Best Practices (WG10) Steering Committee.