Mark C. Howland

I'll research this attorney before drafting.

Let me verify the tracked case and the IPR outcomes described.

Mark C. Howland — Partner, Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, LLP (Dallas). He is a first-chair IP litigator handling patent, trade secret, and copyright disputes in federal courts and before the ITC. His practice spans semiconductor fabrication, wafer inspection, and packaging; microprocessor, DSP, memory, and network-processor architectures; wireless/telecom standards, audio encoding, and data compression; software, GUI, encryption, and payment systems; and oil-and-gas technologies (seismic data acquisition, downhole nanoparticle tracers, frack-pump components). He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering (SMU), which the firm cites as a credential for complex-technology cases.

Side preference. The authoritative case list shows a single tracked appearance, on the defense side (1 defendant / 0 plaintiff), as lead counsel — consistent with a practice built on defending operating companies: semiconductor manufacturers, banks and financial services firms, mobile-handset and network-infrastructure makers, display and digital-camera makers, and a toy manufacturer. His firm bio does include at least one plaintiff-side representation (a multinational IT equipment/services company asserting two patents on prepaid wireless transaction processing), and he also brings counterclaims as a defendant, so the emphasis is defense-heavy but not exclusively so.

Firm context. He joined Carrington Coleman's Dallas office as a partner in January 2016 (with Samuel E. Joyner), expanding the firm's IP practice; before that he spent roughly 15 years at Jones Day, rising from associate to partner in its IP litigation section, with a period based in Washington, D.C.

Notable matters. The tracked case, Compass Bank v. Intellectual Ventures II LLC (N.D. Ala., filed by IV in June 2013 over online-banking operations), is the flagship engagement described on his firm bio: the firm states he obtained a district-court stay pending IPR, and that three of the challenged patents ended in final written decisions holding all asserted claims unpatentable — an outcome IV declined to appeal in one instance and lost on appeal in two (Fed. Cir. Nos. 16-1416, 16-1519; the PTAB proceedings included IPR2014-00724 and -00786). Note that public materials on the Compass Bank IPRs also credit Jones Day, where Howland then worked, and Kutak Rock (Jason E. Jackson) as lead PTAB counsel for the bank group; Howland's precise individual role in that PTAB work is not independently documented in the sources reviewed beyond his firm's own bio. Other reported results: voluntary dismissal with prejudice of a patent suit against a leading semiconductor manufacturer after an inequitable-conduct showing pre-discovery; defense of two semiconductor makers against eight patents; and defense of a manufacturer of wafer-inspection tools against trade secret, inventorship, and patent claims.

PTAB/IPR. He does have post-grant experience tied to the Compass Bank/IV matters, but the available public record does not show him as a repeat, named PTAB petitioner's counsel across many proceedings — treat IPR work as a component of his district-court defense strategy rather than a standalone specialty.

Bar/education. Admitted in Texas (2000) and registered with the USPTO; J.D., University of Texas School of Law (2000). Recognized in Best Lawyers (IP litigation, patent litigation) and Texas Super Lawyers.