Overview
Daniel S. Block is a director in Sterne Kessler’s Electronics Practice Group. Dan’s practice primarily focuses on patent and anti-counterfeiting litigation at the International Trade Commission and in Federal district court. Dan has been integral in designing and implementing anti-counterfeiting measures for numerous international brands, with a focus on cost-neutral enforcement strategies. He has also served as counsel in over 110 post-grant proceedings at the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board. His technical expertise covers many areas of computing including: computer graphics, networking communications, web services, complex computer architectures, and storage systems.
Dan’s brand enforcement work includes obtaining judgments against hundreds of defendants selling counterfeit products of major consumer brands. He has obtained judgments totaling over 50 million dollars, and seized or stopped the sales of tens of thousands of counterfeit items over the Internet.
Dan has served as an advisor to associates participating in the PTAB’s Legal Experience and Advancement Program (LEAP), which provides associates with training and development opportunities in PTAB proceedings, including oral argument.
Prior to joining Sterne Kessler, Dan developed interactive voice response (IVR) telephone systems and call routing systems for a variety of domestic and international retail, manufacturing, and governmental clients. Dan’s work primarily focused on designing, developing and integrating IVR systems with backend database systems, telecommunication/call control systems, and CTI systems. Through his work developing such systems, Dan has cultivated in-depth experience dealing with a variety of open source and proprietary PBX platforms. He has programming experience with a multitude of programming languages such as: C, C++, C#, Java, J2EE, Perl, XML, VoiceXML, and several assembly languages. He has also worked extensively with SOAP and XML-RPC and developed for a variety of operating system platforms such as UNIX, Linux, Windows, BSD, and Mac OS X.
Dan is also a contributing author of Patent Office Litigation, Second Edition, published in 2017, the book provides a fresh and comprehensive exploration of patent office litigation proceedings, including how the proceedings interact with other aspects of patent procurement and enforcement, while delivering practical analysis and advice. This second edition of Patent Office Litigation is the follow up to the first version of the book that was published in 2012 by Thomson Reuters Westlaw that focused on the contested proceedings that were introduced under the America Invents Act that year.
Dan received his B.S. in computer science from the Rochester Institute of Technology and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Law School. While in law school, Dan was a managing editor and staff member on the Minnesota Law Review.
Related Services
Representative Matters
- Volkswagen AG et al v. The Unincorporated Associations Identified in Schedule A (E.D. Va) (represented Volkswagen and Audi in an anti-counterfeiting and trademark suit involving sellers of counterfeit emblems; obtained over 50 million dollars in judgements).
- Automobili Lamborghini SPA et al v. 251 Racing Corporation d/b/a Lamborghini Latino America USA et al (E.D. Va) (representing Lamborghini in an anti-counterfeiting and trademark suit involving sellers of counterfeit goods).
- Volvo Car Corporation et al v. The Unincorporated Associations Identified in Schedule A (E.D. Va) (representing Volvo in an anti-counterfeiting and trademark suit involving sellers of counterfeit emblems).
- Arista Networks v. Cisco Systems (PTAB) (represented Patent Owner, Cisco Systems, in 17 IPR proceedings in computer networking technology. The PTAB denied institution in 10 of the filed proceedings and found challenged claims in 5 of the instituted proceedings not unpatentable).
- Symantec Corporation v. Veeam Software Corporation, (N.D. CA) (PTAB) ( represented Defendant Veeam Software Corporation in a bet-the-company patent suit involving eight patents in computer backup and replication technology).
- Global*Tel Link v. Securus Technologies (N.D. Tex.) (represented Global Tel*Link in a patent suit involving telecommunication technology).
- Certain Road Construction Machines & Components Thereof, Inv. No. 337-TA-1088 (I.T.C.) (representing respondents in a patent suit relating to road-milling machines and pavers and screeds).
- Certain Road Milling Machines & Components Thereof, Inv. No. 337-TA-1067 (I.T.C.) (representing complainant in a patent suit relating to road-milling machines).
- Computing or Graphics Systems, Components Thereof, and Vehicles Containing, Inv. No. 337-TA-984 (I.T.C.) (represented respondents Audi and Volkswagen in a case involving graphics technology).
Accolades
- Best Lawyers, “Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America” (2024)
- Patexia, “The 100 Best Performing Attorneys Representing Patent Owners – PTAB” (2023)
- Patexia, “100 Most Active Attorneys Representing Patent Owners – Inter Partes Review” (2022)
- Patexia, “100 Most Active Attorneys Representing Petitioners – Inter Partes Review” (2022)
- Patexia, “100 Best Performing Attorneys Representing Patent Owners – Inter Partes Review (Top 50)” (2022)
Education
- J.D., University of Minnesota Law School, magna cum laude
- B.S., Computer Science, Rochester Institute of Technology
Admissions
- District of Columbia
- Pennsylvania
- United States Patent & Trademark Office