Intellectual Property
A company does not always automatically own work created by contractors, developers, or early collaborators; without a written IP assignment, ownership may be unclear or may remain with someone else. Accord & Shield Legal prepares agreements designed to help businesses in Arizona, California, and Texas secure ownership rights in their intellectual property.
Your ideas, content, and innovations are real assets. We help you identify, protect, and monetize your intellectual property — so what makes your business valuable stays yours.
For many modern businesses — especially technology and creative companies — intellectual property is the most valuable thing they own. Yet it’s often the least protected. Accord & Shield Legal, PLLC helps businesses across Arizona, California, and Texas secure and capitalize on their IP.
For software and technology companies, that starts with clean ownership: IP assignments from founders, employees, and contractors; trade-secret protection for what stays confidential; and clarity on who owns AI-assisted work. Our guide on AI and IP protection for startups covers the risks founders miss, and our founder hub maps IP steps by stage.
Intellectual Property Services
We provide practical counsel across the major forms of intellectual property:
- Copyrights — protecting original content, software, and creative works
- Trade secrets — safeguarding the confidential information behind your edge
- IP assignment agreements — making sure your business owns what it pays for
- Licensing agreements — putting your IP to work as a revenue source
- IP in transactions — protecting IP in deals, financings, and hires
- Trademarks — handled in depth on our dedicated trademark page
Trademark and copyright registration — including USPTO filings, office actions, and Copyright Office registrations — is supported by our of counsel trademark attorney, Alexandra (Sasha) Berkowitz. See our Trademarks & Copyright practice for the full scope.
Copyright, Trademark, Trade Secret & Patent — What’s the Difference?
“IP” isn’t one thing. Most businesses hold several types at once, each protected a different way. Knowing which is which tells you what you actually need to do to keep it:
| Type | What it protects | How you get it | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copyright | Original creative works — software code, writing, designs, video | Automatic on creation; registration adds enforcement power | Generally the author’s life + 70 years (95 for works made for hire) |
| Trademark | Brand identifiers — names, logos, slogans | Rights from use in commerce; federal registration strengthens them | Potentially forever, if kept in use and renewed |
| Trade secret | Confidential business value — formulas, processes, customer and pricing data | No filing — you protect it by keeping it genuinely secret | As long as it stays secret |
| Patent | New, useful inventions and processes | Application examined and granted by the USPTO | Roughly 20 years from filing (utility patents) |
Note: Accord & Shield does not practice patent law. Patents must be handled by a registered patent attorney — if your invention needs one, we’ll tell you plainly and point you toward the right professional. Our IP work focuses on the copyright, trade secret, trademark, and IP-assignment protections that cover most businesses — see also trade secrets vs. patents.
Own What You Build
One of the most common and costly IP mistakes: assuming your company owns the work created by contractors, developers, or early collaborators. Without a proper IP assignment, it may not. We put the right agreements in place so the code, designs, and content your business relies on are clearly yours.
Do You Actually Own Your IP?
Most founders assume the company owns everything it paid for. It often doesn’t — and the gap tends to surface at the worst possible moment, in an investor’s or acquirer’s due diligence. Run this quick self-audit:
- ✓ Every contractor, developer, and freelancer signed a written IP assignment before starting work.
- ✓ Every employee’s agreement assigns their inventions and work product to the company.
- ✓ Founders assigned any pre-formation IP — code, designs, domains — into the company.
- ✓ Your logo and brand assets were assigned by the designer, not just delivered.
- ✓ Open-source components in your product are properly licensed and don’t force you to disclose your own code.
- ✓ Any AI-generated material in your product has clear usage rights and no ownership gap.
- ✓ NDAs and confidentiality terms cover everyone exposed to your trade secrets.
Hesitated on any of them? That’s a gap worth closing now, while it’s cheap. Our guide on whether you own your company’s IP walks through the fixes, and we put the assignments in place so the answer is a clean yes.
Protect Your Trade Secrets
Not all valuable IP is registered. Your processes, customer data, formulas, and know-how can be protected as trade secrets — but only if you take reasonable steps to keep them confidential. We help you put those protections in place through agreements and policies.
Turn IP Into Revenue
Intellectual property isn’t just something to defend — it’s something to leverage. Through well-structured licensing agreements, your IP can become a source of income. We help you license your assets on terms that protect their value.
Looking for trademark registration specifically? Visit our Trademarks page.
Protect what makes you valuable.
Your ideas, content, and innovations are real assets — we help you own them.
Intellectual Property FAQs
Broadly: copyrights protect original creative works (writing, software, designs), trademarks protect brand identifiers (names, logos), and patents protect inventions. Many businesses need a mix. We help you secure the copyright, trademark, and trade-secret protections that fit your assets; patents are handled by a registered patent attorney, and we’ll point you there if you need one.
Not necessarily. Without a written IP assignment, a contractor or developer may retain rights to what they created — even though you paid for it. We put assignment agreements in place so your business clearly owns its IP.
Trade secret protection depends on keeping the information genuinely confidential — through NDAs, access controls, and clear internal policies. We help you establish the safeguards that preserve trade secret status.
Yes. Licensing lets others use your IP in exchange for fees or royalties, turning an asset you own into a revenue stream. We structure licensing agreements that protect the value of your IP while opening new income.
It's a gray area. U.S. copyright generally protects human authorship, so purely AI-generated output may not be fully protectable, and your AI vendor's terms can affect your rights. We help you structure how AI is used and documented so ownership is as clear as possible.
It's a legal category where the company — not the individual creator — is treated as the author and owner. Employee work often qualifies; contractor work usually does not unless it fits narrow categories and is in writing. That's why a separate written IP assignment for contractors is essential.
Not always. Employees created to invent generally do, but relying on that default is risky, and some state rules limit what you can claim. A clear invention-assignment clause in the employment agreement removes the doubt.
Protect What You’re Building.
Schedule a consultation and find out how Accord & Shield Legal, PLLC can help with your intellectual property matter.