A retired professional athlete launching a media and content company, a personal mark that had carried his brand through a fifteen-year career, and a co-founder he had known for six months. We trademarked the name, structured the company, and made sure the partnership rested on paper.
The athlete had retired from professional competition and was turning his career-long personal brand into a media and content company. He had a co-founder, a handshake agreement on a 50/50 split, and a launch plan that was already mid-production.
His personal name-and-initials mark had carried his brand through fifteen years of competition and endorsements. It had never been filed at the USPTO.
A competing creator had recently filed an application that, if granted, would have blocked his own use of the mark on content and merchandise.
We filed a federal trademark application on his personal mark within 48 hours of engagement, across the classes the new company would operate in. We issued a concurrent-use and priority-based letter to the competing filer and initiated a non-final office-action strategy with the USPTO. We formed a content-holding LLC with a clean operating agreement governing the 50/50 founder split, with specific provisions for IP contribution (his name and likeness on one side, capital and operational commitment on the other), compensation, a buy-sell on founder exit, and a written commitment to future equity raises.
We separated personal IP from the company IP with a clean license agreement from the athlete to the company, so his personal mark would remain his if the partnership ever dissolved. We coordinated with his tax advisor on the income-routing structure and with a business manager on the capital plan for the first twelve months.
"The name is my career. Brandon made sure it will still be mine if the company isn't."
— Founder
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