Areas of Practice: Prosecuting patent applications.

Ms. Nichols's practice includes drafting and prosecuting U.S. patent applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and patent procurement in the electrical arts, both domestically and in foreign countries. Her domestic experience includes all aspects of U.S. patent prosecution, such as responding to Office Actions, appeals to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, Examiner interviews, petitions, and other matters. Exemplary technology areas include semiconductor devices, signal processing, control theory, telecommunications, software, electronics, image processing and capture, business methods, broadcasting technology, digital rights, audio and visual technology and encoding/decoding standards, such as MPEG and MP3 formats, and the mechanical arts.

Ms. Nichols also has litigation experience. This litigation experience includes legal research, preparation of briefs directed to a variety of legal issues, including corporate liability, patent invalidity, patent infringement, personal jurisdiction, and preliminary injunctions and documents review.

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Nichols focused on drafting and prosecuting patent applications, both foreign and domestic, and litigation at a well established patent boutique firm in Washington, DC.

Prior to embarking on the legal career, she worked for The RAND Corporation as Research Assistant in the areas of economics, antiterrorism, defense policy, computer modeling, health care policy and reform, and environmental policy. Ms. Nichols has also worked at the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and Veridian Systems Division/General Dynamics as a Bioengineering Intern. While in law school, Ms. Nichols was a Research Assistant for Professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin focusing her research on social movements in the southern United States from 1960-1975.

Education: University of Virginia (J.D. 2008; Virginia Environmental Law Journal, Managing Editor), University of Virginia (B.S. Electrical Engineering, 2004)

Admitted: Pennsylvania.

Publications:
T. Nichols and S. Rathod , “Does Reverse Payment Stifle the Innovation that the Patent Act Seeks to promote?” BioWorld Today, 2009.
http://www.bioworld.com/servlet/com.accumedia.web.Dispatcher?next=bioWorldHe adlines_article&forceid=50559
D. Mosher, B. Lachman, M. Greenberg, T. Nichols, B. Rosen, and H. Willis, "Installation Mapping Enables Many Missions: The Benefits of and Barriers to Sharing Geospatial Data Assets" The RAND Corporation, National Defense Research Institute, 2008.
B. Lachman, P. Schirmer, D. Frelinger, V. Greenfield, M. Tseng and T. Nichols, "Army Environmental Considerations for Contingency Operations from Planning Through Post-Conflict", The RAND Corporation, 2007.

Associations: Pennsylvania Bar Association, American Intellectual Property Law   Association, Intellectual Property Owners Association.