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Ms. O’Brien’s practice includes creating and maintaining clients' patent portfolios and analyzing competitors' patent portfolios. Ms. O’Brien provides prelitigation intellectual property counseling to clients in order to maximize the value of clients' patent portfolios and to avoid the valid rights of others, relying on her broad background and years of experience procuring complex patents, preparing patentability, validity, and infringement opinions, conducting pre-litigation and product-clearance analyses, and litigating patents. Prior to founding O’Brien Jones PLLC, Ms. O’Brien was an attorney with the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP in Washington, DC. While there, a significant portion of her practice included patent preparation and prosecution, as well as conducting due diligence investigations on both U.S. and international patent portfolios, with an emphasis on pharmaceuticals. Ms. O’Brien also lectures both domestically and abroad on various intellectual property topics, such as inventorship, inequitable conduct, and patenting and litigating polymorphs. |
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Ms. Jones’s experience and expertise most recently has focused on providing a range of patent services to clients and developing patent strategies that complement the client’s business objectives. In particular, she enjoys developing and managing patent portfolios for the world market, for both start-up and larger companies. To this end, she also analyzes competitors’ patent portfolios and products to counsel clients regarding enhancement and enforcement of their patent portfolio, contemplated products, potential design-arounds, and acquisition of technology. Prior to founding O’Brien Jones PLLC, Ms. Jones was an attorney with the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP in Washington, DC. While there, a large part of her practice included working with medical device companies to strategically develop and manage national and international patent portfolios and to monitor competitor activity and provide counseling regarding the same. Ms. Jones also worked as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where she examined patent applications for a variety of mechanical and electro-mechanical devices, focusing in the areas of HVAC control systems, waste handling systems, emission control systems, and drying systems. Prior to her patent career, she received a National Science Foundation Fellowship and researched evaporative spray cooling under a grant from the Building and Fire Research Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and worked for the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center in the Explosions Damage Branch of the Energetic Materials Division. |
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Prior to joining O’Brien Jones, PLLC, Ms. DeCarlo was an attorney in the Atlanta office of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, where she was involved in due diligence investigations; pre-litigation and freedom to operate analyses; preparing patentability, validity, and non-infringement opinions; and all stages of patent procurement before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Prior to attending law school, Ms. DeCarlo worked as a neurobiology research assistant at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. While there, she gained significant scientific experience studying neurotransmitter receptor binding and its role in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. |
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Prior to joining O’BRIEN JONES, PLLC, Ms. Hill was an associate at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard Linn at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. While in law school at George Washington University, Ms. Hill gained experience working as an examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and as a student associate. Ms. Hill has served as an adjunct professor of legal writing at George Washington University Law School. She received her J.D., with honors, from George Washington University Law School and her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University. Ms. Hill is admitted to practice in California, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Prior to her patent career, she was a systems analyst with Andersen Consulting, designing and developing software for such clients as Sikorsky Aircraft and the United Parcel Service. |
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| As a Patent Examiner, Mr. Mutschler examined patent applications crossing over chemical, electrical, and mechanical disciplines, giving him a diverse range of experience in various technologies. In particular, Mr. Mutschler reviewed patent applications in the plastic molding, semiconductor, and photovoltaic industries. Additionally, Mr. Mutschler was responsible for examining patent applications relating to various electrochemical and electrophoretic processes and apparatuses.Mr. Mutschler’s graduate research focused on the structural and biophysical chemistry of nucleic acids. His major research projects studied ribozyme structures and self-replication of DNA-like polymers. |
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Prior to joining O’BRIEN JONES, PLLC, Ms. Nicholls was an attorney with the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP in Washington, DC. While there, a significant part of her practice included working with medical device companies to both procure and protect their patent rights. |
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