Mark L. Whitaker

I'll research Mark L. Whitaker's professional background before drafting.

Let me verify the GoPro v. Insta360 matter, IPR/PTAB experience, and bar admissions.

Mark L. Whitaker — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Specialty and focus. Whitaker is a first-chair patent and trade secret trial lawyer whose practice centers on the International Trade Commission under Section 337, alongside district court and Court of Federal Claims work, and he is consistently ranked for Section 337 work by Chambers (Band 5, USA/Global) and for IP litigation in D.C. (Band 3). His technology mix is broad but hardware-leaning: semiconductors and fabrication/lithography, photo/optical products (action cameras, digital cameras, camera stabilization), consumer electronics, database analytics and data compression, encryption/security software, telecommunications and networking, chemicals, and medical devices. Clients span electronics, telecom, medical devices, consumer products, and pharmaceutical industries. Whitaker is based in Washington, D.C., and is co-chair of Morrison & Foerster's global IP Litigation practice.

Side preference. His docket skews defense-side: he regularly represents defendant/respondent operating companies and has stated a preference for leading teams defending multiple defendants in parallel multi-patent litigations. The tracked data reflect this — 0 plaintiff-side and 1 defendant-side appearance (Insta360). That said, he does selectively represent patent owners/complainants; notable plaintiff-side work includes leading the trial team for Virtru against Microsoft and representing Align Technology as ITC complainant. Treat him as a defense-first litigator who is not strictly one-sided.

Firm context. Whitaker has been at Morrison & Foerster since joining from Baker Botts (where he led its ITC practice), and before that spent roughly a decade as an IP litigation partner at Howrey. He is not in-house.

Notable matters and PTAB. The most prominent tracked matter is GoPro v. Insta360 — ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1400 plus parallel district court litigation and IPRs — where he co-led the team for Insta360. The Commission's February 2026 final determination found no violation on GoPro's five asserted utility patents (non-infringement and/or invalidity), though the ITC issued a limited exclusion order on one asserted design patent (D789,435) as to legacy products; GoPro retained appeal rights. Other verified results include a complete ITC win for Renesas against Broadcom (no violation on all four patents), trial invalidation of all four asserted Callaway patents for Acushnet, favorable settlements for Virtru (v. Microsoft, settled one day before jury selection), TSMC/MediaTek/Nikon ITC matters, and NPE dismissals (e.g., Kappa Digital). He works closely with MoFo's PTAB practitioners on parallel IPR proceedings — including those against GoPro's patents — and has published on ITC enforcement and IPR interplay, though the IPR filings themselves are signed by firm registered practitioners rather than Whitaker personally.

Bar/education. B.S., Northeastern University (1981); J.D., Georgetown University Law Center; admitted in the District of Columbia (lawyer directories list D.C. licensure since 1992). He is a past president of AIPLA (elected Fellows, 2019) and a former U.S. Navy JAG Corps officer.