Intellectual Property & Licensing
A company's name, content, code, and know-how are often worth more than its hard assets, and most companies don't lock them down until something goes wrong. As outside general counsel, we protect the company's intellectual property, register what should be registered, and handle the licenses that move IP in and out.
Talk to an attorneyFounded
1965
Attorneys
11
AV-rated
Martindale-Hubbell
Office
Bellevue, WA
Founded
1965
Attorneys
4
AV-rated
Martindale-Hubbell
Office
Bellevue, WA
Intellectual property and licensing attorneys for Bellevue and Seattle companies
Oseran Hahn handles the intellectual-property work a growing company generates: protecting its brand, content, software, and trade secrets, making sure the company actually owns what its people and contractors create, and papering the licenses that bring IP in or send it out. Most of this is preventive, registering a trademark before a competitor does, getting an assignment signed before a contractor disappears, so it is a natural fit for standing counsel who sees the company's IP needs as they arise.
Intellectual property is a set of assets most companies underprotect until a dispute makes the gap obvious. We protect the company's brand through trademarks; we register and enforce copyright in its content and code; we lock down trade secrets and confidential information; we make sure the company owns what employees and contractors create; and we negotiate the licenses that move IP in and out of the business.
Trademarks and brand protection
A company's name, logo, and brand are usually its most public intellectual property, and protecting them starts before launch, not after a conflict. We clear proposed marks against existing registrations and common-law uses, file federal trademark applications under the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1051), and maintain and enforce the registrations once granted. When another business uses a confusingly similar mark, or when the company receives a cease-and-desist of its own, we handle the response. Getting the clearance and registration right early is far cheaper than rebranding after an infringement claim.
Copyright in content and software
Copyright protects the company's original work, its website and marketing content, its software code, its product designs and written materials, from the moment they are fixed, but registration adds real teeth. Under federal law a company generally must register a U.S. work before it can sue for infringement, and timely registration unlocks statutory damages and attorney fees (17 U.S.C. 101 and 411). We register the works worth protecting, advise on what the company can and cannot use from others, and respond to infringement in either direction.
Trade secrets and confidential information
Much of a company's competitive edge, its customer lists, pricing, processes, and source code, is protected not by registration but by keeping it secret and taking reasonable steps to do so. We help the company qualify and protect that information as trade secrets under Washington's Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (RCW 19.108; 18 U.S.C. 1836), through nondisclosure agreements, access controls, and onboarding and exit practices. When a departing employee or a vendor walks off with protected information, the firm's litigation group enforces it.
IP ownership: work-for-hire and assignment
The most common and costly IP mistake is assuming the company owns what it paid someone to create. It often does not without the right paperwork: a contractor generally owns the code or design they create unless they sign an assignment, and even employees retain rights to inventions developed entirely on their own time under Washington law (17 U.S.C. 101; RCW 49.44.140). We put the assignment and work-for-hire terms in place at hiring and engagement, so the company actually owns the IP it is building, before an investor or acquirer asks to see the chain of title.
Licensing in and out
IP creates value when it moves, and licenses are how it moves. We negotiate the company's inbound licenses, software, technology, and content it brings in, watching scope, field of use, and the open-source obligations that can quietly attach to a product, and we draft the outbound licenses that let the company monetize its own IP on defined terms, territory, and royalties. A clean license protects the asset while letting the company use it; a sloppy one gives away more than the company realized.
Decades protecting the intellectual property of Pacific Northwest companies, with attorneys who handle trademarks, copyright, trade secrets, and licensing as part of standing counsel, and a litigation group that enforces IP when it's taken. We close the ownership gaps before they cost a deal.
We close the ownership gaps.
Most companies don't own all the IP they think they do. We get the assignments and work-for-hire terms signed up front, so the chain of title holds when an investor or buyer checks.
We protect before the dispute.
Clearing a trademark, registering a copyright, locking down a trade secret. The cheap, preventive moves are the ones companies skip until it's expensive. We make them routine.
Enforcement when it's taken.
When someone infringes a mark, copies the code, or walks off with a trade secret, the firm's litigation group enforces it, already knowing the IP because we helped protect it.
The attorneys behindthe work.
Our business and corporate attorneys handle this work alongside our litigation team, so you have coverage whether your matter stays transactional or becomes something more.
What clientsask us first.
Should we register our trademark, or is using it enough?
Using a mark gives you some common-law rights, but federal registration under the Lanham Act is far stronger: it gives nationwide priority, public notice, and better remedies (15 U.S.C. 1051). We clear the mark first to make sure it's available, then file. Clearance matters, because adopting a mark someone already owns is an expensive way to learn this.
Do we own the code our contractor wrote for us?
Not automatically. A contractor generally owns what they create unless they've signed an IP assignment, and 'work for hire' has a narrow legal definition that often doesn't apply to software (17 U.S.C. 101). We put assignment terms in place at engagement so the company actually owns the work. If the paperwork is missing, we fix it before it surfaces in due diligence.
How do we protect our confidential information?
Trade secret protection depends on actually keeping the information secret and taking reasonable steps to do so, which Washington's Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the federal DTSA then enforce (RCW 19.108; 18 U.S.C. 1836). We set up the NDAs, access controls, and onboarding and exit practices that establish protection, so the information qualifies as a trade secret if you ever need to enforce it.
Do we need to register copyrights?
Copyright exists automatically, but you generally have to register a U.S. work before you can sue for infringement, and registering early unlocks statutory damages and attorney fees (17 U.S.C. 411). We register the works worth protecting, your software, key content, designs, so that if someone copies them, you have real remedies rather than just a claim you can't efficiently pursue.
We're licensing our software to a customer. What should we watch for?
Scope, field of use, territory, exclusivity, and royalties, plus warranties, indemnity, and what happens on termination. An outbound license should let the customer use the IP without giving away ownership or more rights than intended. We draft it to protect the asset, and on inbound licenses we watch for open-source obligations that can attach to your product.
When should we bring in IP counsel?
Before adopting a brand or product name, before a contractor or employee starts creating IP, before signing any license, and well before a financing or sale where someone will examine your IP ownership. The preventive work is inexpensive; reconstructing a broken chain of title under deal pressure is not.
Recentarticles.
Trademarks, copyright, trade secrets, IP ownership, and licensing for Washington companies, as outside general counsel.
Oseran Hahn P.S. · 11225 SE 6th St, Suite 100 · Bellevue, WA 98004
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