Daniel Joel Schwartz

I'll research this attorney before drafting the summary.

Let me dig deeper into his case history, PTAB work, and prior firm background.

Professional Summary — Daniel Joel Schwartz (Nixon Peabody LLP)

Specialty / focus areas. Schwartz is a Chicago-based IP trial lawyer whose practice centers on patent, trade secret, trademark, copyright, and licensing disputes, litigated in federal district courts and before the USPTO. Firm and directory descriptions identify a broad technology range: chemistry and chemical engineering (including complex polymer chemistry), 3-D vision, wireless communications protocols, telecommunications networking architecture, arterial stents, GIS/geolocation and database management, QR code technologies, and internet-related technologies; he also counsels on AI and technology implementation and risk. The tracked matter adds data-center thermal-management/cooling technology to that list. He holds leadership roles in the practice rather than a narrow technical niche: he led Nixon Peabody's IP litigation team before being named deputy leader of the firm's Intellectual Property practice in September 2024.

Side preference. The authoritative tracked record shows one appearance, on the defense side, as lead day-to-day counsel (0 plaintiff / 1 defendant). That defense posture is consistent with the broader pattern reflected in third-party dockets — e.g., appearing for data-center operator defendants in the Valtrus/Key Patent Innovations campaign — but he is not confined to defense work; Legal 500 describes Nixon Peabody's patent litigation group as serving as lead counsel for both plaintiffs and defendants, and Law360's attorney page lists him on matters where the firm's operating-company clients are the patent holders or declaratory-judgment plaintiffs (e.g., Donaldson Company, Inc. v. Torque Parts LLC; Vertiv Corporation v. Valtrus Innovations Limited). Net, he reads primarily as defense-side counsel to operating companies facing NPE/PAE assertions, with a secondary prosecution-side/enforcement practice for corporate patent owners.

Firm context. He has been with Nixon Peabody (Chicago office, 70 W. Madison) throughout the period covered by the available sources; I found no verified prior-firm history for this attorney. Caution on disambiguation: a 2006 Law360/Law.com report that Nixon Peabody acquired the IP boutique Schwartz, Sung & Webster concerns Jeff Schwartz and Lawrence Sung — not Daniel J. Schwartz — and should not be attributed to him. Other unrelated individuals share the name (e.g., a Burger King/RBI executive, a different Daniel S. Schwartz), and the Law360 profile for "Daniel J. Schwartz" is the relevant one.

Notable tracked case. Key Patent Innovations Ltd. et al. v. Netrality Properties, LP (N.D. Ill., No. 1:26-cv-03929; also part of MDL No. 3190). Plaintiffs Key Patent Innovations/Valtrus Innovations — an NPE entity formed to monetize data-center patents acquired from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise — assert cooling-system and energy-management patents (including U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,854,287 and 6,686,682) against data-center operators. Schwartz appears for the defendant side (Netrality Properties, along with Iron Mountain Data Centers and H5 Data Centers in the consolidated/MDL proceedings). The broader Valtrus campaign runs parallel to declaratory-judgment litigation brought by Vertiv Corporation in the Eastern District of Texas.

PTAB / IPR experience. I could not independently verify that Schwartz personally appears in IPR/PGR proceedings; no petition naming him was located in the sources reviewed. His firm bio states he represents clients before the USPTO generally, and related PTAB activity around the University of California lighting-patent family was handled by other Nixon Peabody attorneys. Treat personal IPR track record as unconfirmed.

Bar / education. Admitted in Illinois since 1995; J.D., Northwestern University School of Law (1995), per Super Lawyers/Best Lawyers profiles. (No verified bar-admission list or undergraduate institution found in the sources reviewed.)