Daniel Hwang

Partner
Contact
P 202.795.4067 | F 202.293.0445
Spencer Fane attorney Daniel Hwang

Overview

Daniel Hwang is an IP counselor providing guidance throughout the life cycle of intellectual property rights – from early-stage strategy through dispute readiness, risk management, and enforcement. Daniel advises clients on how to develop, secure, and protect their core IP. With broad subject-matter exposure across technology, medical, industrial, and energy innovations, Daniel offers practical advice that helps clients leverage and defend their IP assets.

Daniel brings deep experience in trademark and patent portfolio management, with a practice that spans enforcement, prosecution, and litigation across several industries. Daniel manages domestic and international IP portfolios for global corporations, developing core inventions and protecting international brands. With experience touching patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade dress, and false advertising, he helps build cohesive, business-aligned portfolios covering processes, services, and products in a wide range of industries.

Daniel has also resolved hundreds of enforcement matters involving counterfeit products and gray-market or parallel imports in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions. His enforcement experience extends across the full spectrum of contentious forums, including state and federal courts and administrative bodies such as the USPTO, TTAB, and PTAB. Daniel’s combination of practical agency, enforcement, and court experience positions him to act quickly and strategically to protect brand equity and market position.

Credentials

Education

  • University of Illinois College of Law (J.D.)
  • Washington University (B.S.)

Bar Admissions

  • Illinois
  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
  • Not admitted in District of Columbia

Court Admissions

  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

  • Coordinated the enforcement strategy using a mixed intellectual property (trademark, trade dress, patent) portfolio against related set of infringers and counterfeiters for medical device manufacturer.
  • Conducted and organized M&A IP due diligence including domestic and international patents and trademarks for retail product manufacturer acquisition for private equity holding company.
  • Integrated invention disclosure process for a software developer and corresponding international patent portfolio related to a new product launch.
  • Enforced longstanding intellectual property rights and obtained an injunction against the previous infringing product manufacturer including trademark and medical expert testimony and discovery.
  • Successfully defended a litigation case related to patent and trademark rights of a medical device client against an international infringer manufacturer incorporating GDRP issues related to European privacy laws.

  • Lincoln Park Community Services
  • Vitalant Blood Donation Services

  • INTA Advancement of Association Objectives Award

  • Chicago Bar Association
  • International Trademark Association (INTA)
  • INTA Foundation
  • Korean American Bar Association of Chicago
  • Korean Cultural Center of Chicago
  • AIPLA American Intellectual Property Association

  • “USPTO Section 101 Trends,” November 2024, 2025
  • “Artificial Intelligence and the USPTO: Patent Protection for Inventions Directed to Artificial Intelligence,” April 2024
  • “The Front Line of Leadership for AI Technology and the Related Intellectual Property Landscape in the U.S.,” October 2023
  • “USPTO Design Patent and Trade Dress Protection,” January 2023
  • “Understanding the USPTO Examiner,” September 2022