Seattle Intellectual Property Lawyer
IP counsel for Seattle brands, software companies, and creators — trademark registration and strategy, copyright, trade secret programs, and the assignment and licensing agreements that make IP actually ownable.
Serving Seattle, Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, Ballard, and communities throughout Washington.
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Seattle Intellectual Property
Your intellectual property — trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, and proprietary processes — is often your most valuable business asset. Your IP lawyer helps you identify, protect, and leverage your IP through strategic registration, licensing, and enforcement. Whether you're launching a new brand or protecting trade secrets, your intellectual property lawyer provides the guidance you need.
What We Offer
Trademark Registration
Federal and state trademark applications, clearance searches, and prosecution through the USPTO.
Trade Secret Protection
Policies, agreements, and procedures to identify and protect your confidential business information.
IP Licensing
License agreements that monetize your intellectual property while protecting your rights.
Copyright Registration
Registration and protection of original works, software, and creative content.
IP Audits
Comprehensive review of your intellectual property portfolio to identify unprotected assets and risks.
IP in M&A Transactions
Due diligence, transfer, and licensing of intellectual property in business transactions.
Intellectual Property in Seattle
Seattle, WA Intellectual Property Lawyers
Seattle produces intellectual property at industrial scale — software from South Lake Union and Fremont, consumer brands from coffee to outdoor gear, games and interactive media, food and beverage concepts that expand regionally, creative work from one of the country's densest agency and studio scenes. As Seattle intellectual property lawyers, we do the unglamorous work that determines whether any of it is actually owned: federal trademark clearance and registration before the brand ships, copyright registration where it creates leverage, trade secret programs that survive employee departures, and — most consequentially — the assignment, license, and work-for-hire agreements that put the IP on the company's balance sheet instead of scattered among founders, contractors, and former employers.
The practice is protection and transactions, consistent with the firm's advisory model: trademark portfolios built with USPTO prosecution and renewal management, licensing deals for software, brands, and content, technology transfer and development agreements, open-source compliance reviews that catch copyleft obligations before an acquirer's diligence does, and the Washington-specific overlay that Seattle companies inherit — invention assignment limits under RCW 49.44.140 for employees who build on personal time, trade secret protection under Washington's Uniform Trade Secrets Act backed by confidentiality agreements drafted inside RCW 49.62's covenant rules, and the moonlighting-clause analysis every Amazon or Microsoft alum needs before commercializing a side project. Patent prosecution is coordinated through patent counsel in our network while we manage strategy and the surrounding contracts.
IP work here is flat-fee by deliverable — clearance searches, applications, license agreements, portfolio audits — quoted in writing, with registrations tracked and renewed so protection does not lapse from inattention. Service is remote-first from the Bellevue hub: video strategy sessions, secure portal, national USPTO practice regardless of geography. For companies heading toward financing or sale, we run the IP diligence-readiness audit buyers will eventually run, on the friendlier timeline. Call (425) 655-7875 to schedule a consultation.
Why Choose Us
The Relevant Law Difference
- 1Strategic approach that aligns IP protection with business goals
- 2Experience with businesses from startups to established companies
- 3Proactive identification of IP assets you may not realize you have
- 4Coordination with patent counsel when specialized prosecution is needed
Recognition & Trust
Relevant Law makes Seattle IP actually ownable — trademark portfolios, trade secret programs, and airtight assignment chains, flat-fee by deliverable and managed so protection never lapses.
Why Seattle, WA clients choose us
- Trademark clearance, USPTO prosecution, and renewal management as flat-fee packages
- Chain-of-title audits and RCW 49.44.140 side-project analysis for founders leaving big tech
- Open-source and IP diligence-readiness reviews run before an acquirer runs them
Frequently Asked Questions
Common Questions About Intellectual Property
Do I need a federal trademark for my Seattle business?
If the name, logo, or product line is part of why customers choose you — yes, and earlier than most founders think. Washington common-law rights stop at your actual trading area; federal registration gives nationwide priority, blocks confusingly similar later filings, unlocks the ® symbol, and becomes a real asset in financing and acquisition diligence. Seattle's food, beverage, and consumer brands especially need clearance before regional expansion, because discovering a conflicting Portland or Bay Area mark after three years of brand-building is an expensive rename. We run clearance, file, respond to office actions, and manage renewals as a flat-fee package.
Who owns the software my contractors and employees wrote?
Not automatically you. Employee-created code within the scope of employment generally belongs to the employer, but Washington's RCW 49.44.140 protects inventions employees develop entirely on their own time without company resources — and contractor-written code belongs to the contractor absent a written assignment, no matter what you paid for it. The fix is documentary: present-tense assignment language in every employment and contractor agreement, confirmed IP schedules at financing time, and cleanup assignments for historical gaps. Buyer diligence reads these documents literally. We audit the chain of title and repair it while the people involved are still reachable and friendly.
How do I protect a trade secret in Washington?
Washington's Uniform Trade Secrets Act protects information that derives value from secrecy and is subject to reasonable efforts to keep it secret — and the phrase doing the work is reasonable efforts. That means written confidentiality agreements with employees, contractors, and partners; access limited to people who need it; marking and handling conventions; and offboarding procedures that recover materials and remind departing employees of obligations. Recipes, customer economics, manufacturing processes, and algorithms all qualify when the program exists, and none of them qualify when it does not. We build the program as documents and procedures sized to the company — protection here is process, not litigation.
I built a side project while working at a big tech company — do I own it?
It depends on three documents: your employment agreement's invention assignment clause, the company's moonlighting policy, and RCW 49.44.140 — which voids assignment provisions reaching inventions developed entirely on personal time without employer equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secrets, unless the invention relates to the employer's business or anticipated R&D. That last clause is the hard part when your employer is Amazon or Microsoft, whose businesses relate to nearly everything. The analysis is fact-specific: what you built, when, on what hardware, and how close to your day job. Get it done before incorporation or investment — investors will ask, and the wrong answer after the fact is unfixable.
What is an open-source compliance review and do I need one?
An audit of the open-source components in your codebase against their licenses — permissive licenses like MIT and Apache impose light obligations, while copyleft licenses like GPL and AGPL can require releasing your own source code under circumstances that surprise founders. Every acquirer and most serious investors scan for this in diligence; findings at that stage become price reductions, escrows, or dead deals. The friendly version is running the review yourself first, remediating flagged components, and adopting a policy for future dependencies. For Seattle SaaS companies, AGPL components in server-side code are the finding that matters most. We coordinate the scan and paper the remediation.
What does trademark registration cost?
USPTO filing fees currently run a few hundred dollars per class, and our flat legal fee covers clearance searching, application drafting, and prosecution through straightforward office actions — quoted in writing before filing. Total cost for a single-class word mark typically lands near or below what one month of a brand's marketing spend costs, for an asset that lasts as long as it is renewed. Multi-class filings, design marks, and contested prosecution price higher, and we tell you which apply before you commit. Renewal deadlines are docketed and managed so registrations do not lapse — the most common way small brands lose marks is not conflict, it is calendar.
Areas We Serve
Intellectual Property Services Across Washington
The Seattle office serves as a regional hub for intellectual property services throughout Washington. Whether you're located in Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, Ballard, or anywhere in the surrounding area, your lawyer provides the same high-quality legal services.
Practice Breadth in Seattle
We also help Seattle businesses with formation, contracts, M&A, and succession — so the same trusted office handles both your family plan and your company's legal foundation.
Also Available
Business Law
Formation, contracts, M&A, and ongoing advisory counsel for Seattle businesses.
Also Available
Business Formation
LLC and corporation formation, operating agreements, and entity structuring for Seattle founders.
Also Available
Contracts & Agreements
Commercial contract drafting, review, and negotiation for Seattle businesses.
Also Available
Mergers & Acquisitions
Buy-side and sell-side M&A support for Seattle owners and acquirers.
Also Available
Business Succession
Buy-sell agreements, transition planning, and exit strategy for Seattle business owners.
Also Available
Estate Planning
Wills, revocable living trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives for Seattle families.
Ready to Schedule a Consultation?
Schedule a consultation to discuss your intellectual property needs. Serving Seattle, Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, Ballard and communities throughout Washington.
Washington Disclosure
The Supreme Court of Washington does not recognize specialties in the practice of law, and no representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.
Relevant Law offices are independently owned and operated by licensed attorneys.