Daniel S. Block

Daniel S. Block is a director in Sterne Kessler’s Electronics Practice Group and leads the firm’s artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives, representing technology companies — including market-leading hardware, software, and AI businesses — in high-stakes patent litigation in federal district court and in Section 337 investigations at the International Trade Commission (ITC). Dan has been involved in more than 50 cases in federal courts and the ITC, and he has extensive experience in post-grant proceedings, having led more than 100 inter partes reviews (IPRs) and post-grant reviews (PGRs) before the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). He represents both patent owners and accused infringers, with emphasis on defending operating companies against assertions by non-practicing entities (NPEs), including early dispositive strategies under Section 101, parallel IPR and ex parte reexamination campaigns, and coordinated district court defense strategies designed to resolve cases before they reach the merits.

A former software developer, Dan brings genuine engineering fluency to his cases. He is widely recognized for his ability to present source code effectively to judges and juries, and he routinely conducts direct and cross-examination of technical experts and engineering witnesses on the most complex issues in a case. His technology experience spans a broad range of innovations, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, telecommunications and networking, computer architecture, data center infrastructure, virtualization and storage, computer graphics, and web services. He also applies his engineering fluency to industries as varied as automotive, payment processing, music streaming, food processing equipment, and road construction.

Dan leads Sterne Kessler’s artificial intelligence initiatives and heads Sterne Kessler Labs, the firm’s in-house software development team. Under his leadership, Sterne Kessler launched Patent Assist AI, a proprietary tool for drafting patent specifications, and developed an AI tool that analyzes patent eligibility under Section 101. The team is actively developing new AI tools, including capabilities for e-discovery and prior art search. Dan’s combination of trial experience, software background, and hands-on role building production AI systems gives clients in technology and AI an advisor who understands both the courtroom and the codebase, who can speak credibly with engineering and product teams as well as with general counsel and legal teams.

Dan’s recent matters include leading the technical team in Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals v. Airgas Therapeutics (D. Del.), where a jury returned a $9.5 million verdict and found willful infringement of all seven asserted claims across three patents, supporting potential enhancement of up to approximately $28.5 million. He also defended Block, Inc. in AuthWallet LLC v. Block, Inc. (S.D.N.Y.), winning a Section 101 motion to dismiss; represented RoboticVISIONTech in patent litigation against ABB (D. Del.), securing a favorable settlement and denial of institution of an IPR at the PTAB; and represented Palo Alto Networks before the PTAB against BT Americas, where all 25 challenged claims of the asserted patent were found unpatentable. Dan has also obtained anti-counterfeiting judgments totaling more than $75 million against hundreds of defendants on behalf of major consumer brands.

Dan has ranked among Patexia’s “100 Best Performing Attorneys Representing Patent Owners” and was named to Best Lawyers “Ones to Watch in America.” He is a frequent speaker and panelist on patent litigation and AI in legal practices and has been quoted in leading industry publications including Law360, World IP Review, and Managing Intellectual Property. He earned a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Law School, where he served as managing editor of the Minnesota Law Review, and a B.S. in computer science from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Outside the office, Dan is a hardware reverse engineer and amateur woodworker, who designs and fabricates his own printed circuit boards for IoT and home automation projects.