Professor Thomas joined the Law Center faculty in 2002. He has served as a Visiting Scholar at the Congressional Research Service and was named the inaugural Thomas Alva Edison Visiting Scholar at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He currently serves as Academic Advisor to the National Board of Trial Advocacy and as a member of the Patent Challenge Committee of the Patent Quality Initiative. Professor Thomas formerly served as law clerk to Chief Judge Helen W. Nies of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and Comparative Patent, Copyright and Unfair Competition Law in Munich, Germany; and research scholar at the Institute of Intellectual Property in Tokyo, Japan. Professor Thomas has authored or co-authored numerous articles and eight books on the subject of intellectual property law.