Dr. Nisha Somnath

Nisha is proficient in US Patent Office guidance and US case law relating to patent-eligible subject matter, and she actively draws on that knowledge when developing cross-jurisdictional prosecution strategies. Having worked in Cooley’s US offices before relocating to London, she understands how eligibility frameworks differ across the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO), and tailors her approach accordingly.

Nisha has an interdisciplinary academic background with a PhD in industrial engineering and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a bachelor’s degree in mechatronics engineering from India. Before entering legal practice, she worked as a quantitative analyst at an American derivatives marketplace.

Nisha also has experience in teaching software programming. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she served as a teaching assistant for various programming courses, was listed among teachers ranked as excellent by their students and received the Department of Computer Science’s Outstanding Teaching Assistantship Award.