Robert Mark

I'll research this firm and the tracked case before writing.

Note on firm identity: The dataset labels this firm "Robert Mark," with a single tracked appearance. No law firm by that name is verifiable in public records, court dockets, or legal directories. The only attorney in the record is Robert C. Bunt, Jr., a principal at Parker, Bunt & Ainsworth, P.C. of Tyler, Texas, who is listed as local counsel in the tracked case. The "Robert Mark" entry appears to be a data artifact (possibly conflating the firm's retired founder, Robert M. Parker, and/or a middle name). The summary below therefore describes the entity the underlying record actually identifies. If "Robert Mark" refers to a different firm, the record is insufficient to profile it.

Firm overview. Parker, Bunt & Ainsworth, P.C. is a three-attorney litigation boutique at 100 E. Ferguson Street, Tyler, Texas, founded in 2002 by Robert M. Parker, a former U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas and former Fifth Circuit judge who retired from the firm in 2016. It operates a single office, one block from the Tyler federal courthouse, and describes itself as serving "as local counsel to large national law firms" litigating in the Eastern District of Texas. This is a regional patent/local-counsel shop, not BigLaw and not a full-service IP boutique; no AmLaw, Chambers, or comparable firm-wide ranking is publicly available.

IP litigation specialty. The firm's stated practice centers on intellectual property litigation, commercial litigation, and general civil litigation, with Martindale-listed practice areas for its principals including patent litigation, IP litigation, trademark, and copyright. The tracked matter — Handsfree Labs Licensing LLC et al. v. Skechers U.S.A., Inc., No. 2:25-cv-00744 (E.D. Tex., Judge Rodney Gilstrap) — is a mechanical/consumer-product patent case over hands-free footwear (four utility patents and two design patents covering heel and entry-mechanism technology). Public dockets also show firm attorneys appearing in East Texas patent and complex commercial matters, consistent with a generalist local-counsel practice rather than a single-technology niche.

Side preference. The tracked data is one-sided on paper: 0 plaintiff-side and 1 defendant-side appearance, in a local-counsel role. That single data point should not be read as a defense-only orientation. The firm's own description says it represents "both plaintiffs and defendants," and its local-counsel model means its side is dictated by whichever national firm retains it. Historical court filings (e.g., appearances for plaintiffs EMG Technology and Beneficial Innovations in E.D. Tex. patent suits) show work on the plaintiff side as well, though those are not part of the tracked dataset and are cited only as public-record context.

Notable cases and outcomes. The only tracked matter is the Handsfree Labs v. Skechers litigation, filed July 24, 2025 in the Marshall Division. Plaintiffs (HandsFree Labs Licensing, FAST IP, and Kizik Design) are represented by Boies Schiller Flexner (lead counsel Ryan Dykal, with Eric Maurer and Joshua Schiller); the case targets Skechers' Hands Free Slip-ins line, which plaintiffs allege accounts for roughly 35% of Skechers' listed products, and seeks injunctive relief, damages, willfulness, and fees. Skechers publicly called the claims "baseless" and stated it will "aggressively challenge both the validity of the patents and the infringement claims." The case is in its early stages — no verdict, settlement, or appeal to report. Separately, Skechers filed IPR petitions IPR2026-00342 and IPR2026-00343 against U.S. Patent No. 11,633,006 on the petitioner side through Irell & Manella; patent owner counsel of record is Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox. I found no public record of a firm outcome (verdict, Federal Circuit appeal, or reported settlement) attributable to Parker, Bunt & Ainsworth, and no reported trial wins for the firm that I can verify.

PTAB / IPR practice and key people. There is no verified IPR/PGR filing practice at this firm in any public report, and no public figure quantifies its PTAB volume. Firm attorneys do appear as counsel of record in older PTAB matters (e.g., IPR2014-00404, IPR2014-00405, CBM2014-00145), but those listings are consistent with a supporting/local-counsel role alongside national firms, and the sample is too thin to characterize a practice. On personnel: Robert C. "Chris" Bunt, Jr. (principal; UT Law J.D. 1993; Best Lawyers since 2010 in patent litigation, IP litigation, commercial litigation, and trademark) is the attorney in the tracked case and the firm's most prominent patent litigator by third-party recognition. Charles L. Ainsworth (principal since 1992; Super Lawyers 2021–2025 in intellectual property) and retired founder Robert M. Parker round out the firm's listed roster. The firm holds an AV Preeminent Martindale-Hubbell peer rating. I found no partner-level Chambers, Legal 500, or IAM ranking for any individual at the firm.