NATALIE J. GRACE

Patent Prosecution and Counseling
Licensing/Agreements
Trade Secret Analysis
Infringement/Validity Opinions
Post Grant Proceedings 

Phone: 603-782-7427
Email: ngrace@finchmaloney.com

Natalie J Grace’s IP experience touches upon diverse technologies and aspects of IP protection. Ms. Grace has exercised expedited prosecution strategies to gain portfolios of new, strengthened patents for litigation assertion that have proven to both withstand post-grant attack and obtain favorable outcomes for clients. She also has extensive experience in post-grant proceedings, having collaborated in argument development and drafting coordination for a variety of high-stakes post-grant matters. She frequently assists clients with patentability and infringement evaluation, landscape study, patentability analysis and freedom-to-operate research. Additionally, Ms. Grace assists with portfolio analysis, licensing, and acquisition of IP portfolios, as well as in assertion of IP portfolios for licensing or acquisition purposes.

Ms. Grace applies her electrical engineering degree and nearly a decade of software development experience to building patent portfolios in the software, electronic and medical devices spaces, in relation to, among others, consumer electronic devices; electronic payment services; network communications management; software development platforms; hardware design simulation platforms; electronic gaming platforms; social media platforms and tools; wireless technologies; financial management and market analysis tools; three-dimensional printing applications; semiconductor manufacturing; industrial automation; wearable sensor technology for medical diagnosis, monitoring and intervention; neurostimulation devices and methods; and other software used in medical imaging, diagnosis and treatment. In particular, she has enjoyed focusing on developing successful drafting techniques for obtaining patent protection for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning innovations domestically and abroad. The machine-learning and AI inventions include many cross-over technologies combining, for example, financial industries or life sciences with big data analysis such as genomic sequencing analysis, software systems for bioinformatics and reinsurance portfolio risk analysis. Beyond her technological areas of expertise, Ms. Grace has extensive background in patent prosecution in the mechanical arts, including aerospace, transportation and medical device technologies.

Ms. Grace has been repeatedly recognized as a leader in the field, including being listed in 2024 as a World’s Leading IP Strategist by IAM Strategy 300, a World’s Leading Patent Practitioner by IAM Patent 1000, and a Patent Star in the IP STARS legal directory by Managing IP.

Before entering the legal field, Ms. Grace worked as a senior software design engineer with Cisco Systems and Lucent Technologies.