Mark Douglas Schafer

I'll research this attorney before drafting.

Now let me verify his case results and career history.

Let me check a few more specifics — TouchStream, IPR experience, and his Sprint/Comcast work.

Professional Summary — Mark D. Schafer

Focus areas. Schafer is a patent litigator whose practice centers on high-technology and competitor disputes rather than pharma or mechanical arts. His BSF bio and the firm's May 2024 lateral-hire announcement describe litigation experience in telecommunications (VoIP and network infrastructure), online streaming and "casting" of video content between devices, semiconductors, datacenter technology, medical devices and wearables, consumer electronics, mobile payments, automotive and LED lighting, plus computer software and SaaS. He also handles IPRs and related trademark work (e.g., a preliminary and permanent injunction in a real estate trademark matter).

Side preference. The authoritative tracked file shows only two appearances, both on the defense side as counsel, both at Boies Schiller Flexner — a very small sample that should not be read as a firm-side profile. Web-verifiable dockets show a genuinely mixed practice: firm materials state Schafer has helped plaintiff-side clients obtain "over $1 billion" in verdicts and settlements in competitor patent suits (a team-level figure, not attributed to him individually) while also defending large technology companies and startups against nine-figure claims. In the TouchStream campaign he appeared pro hac vice for the plaintiff startup, while his client list at Shook/BSF (Sprint/T-Mobile, UPS, Coca-Cola, Rimini Street, a Fortune 10 consumer electronics company) is largely operating-company work. There is no indication he represents NPEs or PAEs as a specialty.

Firm context. Schafer has been a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner since May 2024, joining with Ryan Dykal and Jordan Bergsten from Shook, Hardy & Bacon as part of a three-partner IP litigation group. He was promoted to partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon in 2022 and had been at that firm since at least 2014. He is affiliated with BSF's Washington, D.C. office but remains active in Denver and was previously based in Kansas City.

Notable matters. His most prominent verifiable result is Sprint Communications Co. v. Time Warner Cable (D. Kan.): a 2017 jury found willful infringement of five VoIP patents and awarded $139.8 million, and the Federal Circuit affirmed on November 30, 2018 (nonprecedential; Judge Mayer dissenting). His BSF bio identifies him as trial counsel in that case; he also appears on Sprint's counsel list in the related Sprint v. Comcast action in Delaware. He is counsel for plaintiff TouchStream Technologies in its assertion campaign against cable operators — TouchStream v. Comcast (E.D. Tex.), where the plaintiff sought $525 million and the case settled during a March 2025 trial before closing arguments, and TouchStream v. Charter (E.D. Tex.), which went to a defense verdict of noninfringement in March 2025 with TouchStream's new-trial and JMOL motions denied in August 2025. His bio also cites a reversed summary judgment of invalidity on six patents on appeal that produced a nine-figure settlement, a video game company trial described as the first fully remote patent trial, and summary judgment of non-infringement for an LED lighting manufacturer.

PTAB / IPR experience. Not a high-volume PTAB practitioner on the record. His bio lists IPR work on both sides (defeating institution of an IPR petition for a plumbing manufacturer; a mobile payments case that settled after successful institution), and he has been adverse to a substantial IPR campaign — Comcast, Charter and Altice filed multiple IPRs against the TouchStream patents, with the district court cases stayed pending review.

Bar and education. J.D., Washington University in St. Louis (2014), where he was editor-in-chief of the Washington University Global Studies Law Review; also an M.B.A. from Washington University's Olin Business School (2014) and a B.S. from Truman State University (2010). A Martindale profile (last updated while he was at Shook) lists admission in Missouri (2014), registration to practice before the USPTO, and admission to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri; current bar admissions were not independently confirmed. He is a member of AIPLA, the Denver Bar Association, and the board of the Colorado IP American Inn of Court, and was recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch (Litigation–IP; Litigation–Patent) beginning in 2024.

Caveat: the two tracked appearances in the source data are uncaptioned, so the case-level detail above rests on firm publications, court dockets, and contemporaneous legal-press reporting rather than on the structured list.