Gracie Mills

Gracie K. Mills focuses on patent prosecution and post-grant proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and appeals at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

She represents clients across numerous electrical and electronic technologies, including computer software, consumer electronics, telecommunications, encryption and cybersecurity, financial technologies, semiconductors, nanotechnology, and electrical materials.

Gracie’s patent prosecution experience includes leading invention harvests, developing patent portfolio strategies, drafting patent applications, conducting examiner interviews, and managing prosecution generally.

She has experience in pre-trial preparation for both post-grant proceedings and district court litigations, including preparing motions and briefs and conducting legal and factual research in support of infringement, invalidity, and discovery disputes.

Prior to joining Finnegan, Gracie worked as a patent agent. She managed hundreds of patent applications, including domestic and international families of related patent applications.

While working as a researcher at Northwestern University, she designed, fabricated, and tested thermocouple-based lithographic temperature sensors, resulting in a U.S. patent for “Bi-metallic Integrated On-Chip Thermocouple Array.”

Education :

• Notre Dame Law School J.D., 2015
• Northwestern University B.S., Electrical Engineering, 2009

Clerkships :

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit, Hon. Kimberly A. Moore

Admissions :

• District of Columbia
• Virginia
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Professional Activities :

• American Intellectual Property Law Association