Helped Clients Recover Over $25 Billion. Since 1979.
Helped Clients Recover Over $25 Billion. Since 1979.
Software and AI companies make money through their contracts and build value through their brands. The Schenk Law Firm negotiates the agreements tech companies sign with customers, developers, and advisors, and protects the names their products are sold under.
Master Services Agreements
We draft and negotiate master services agreements and statements of work, including large-company forms that need careful redlining on liability, indemnity, and insurance.
Development and Consulting Agreements
We prepare development and consulting agreements that set the scope, payment terms, and who owns the code and the work product.
Advisor and Fractional Executive Agreements
We draft agreements for advisors and fractional executives, including compensation, scope, and confidentiality.
Product Terms and Privacy Policies
We prepare and update terms of service and privacy policies for software products.
Trademarks for Software and AI
We clear and register product and company names with the USPTO and keep those registrations in force.
Company Structure
We form and restructure tech companies, including moving a company to a new state. See our startup equity and fundraising page for founder equity and investment.
A large customer sent us its standard MSA.
Large-company forms protect the customer, but many terms can be negotiated. Focus on the liability cap, indemnity, insurance requirements, payment terms, and your right to use subcontractors.
Who owns the code a contractor writes for us?
Not always the company. Without a written assignment, a contractor may keep rights in what they create. Your development agreement should assign the work to the company.
Do we need a privacy policy?
If your product collects personal information from users, generally yes, and California has specific requirements. The policy should match what the product actually does with the data.
Can we trademark an AI product name?
Yes, if the name is distinctive and doesn’t conflict with an existing mark. Search before you launch, since many tech names are crowded.
We’re bringing on a fractional CTO.
Put the scope, time commitment, pay, and ownership of the work in writing, along with confidentiality terms.
Experience
David Lizerbram has practiced business and trademark law for more than two decades. Benjamin Schenk founded and runs a commercial real estate investment and asset management firm.
Contracts and Brands
We handle a tech company’s customer contracts and its trademarks.
Founder to Customer
We work with tech companies from formation and founder equity through the agreements with their customers and developers.
Case Study
A learning and development consultancy needed to sign a master services agreement with a large pharmaceutical company. We redlined the company’s form to protect the consultancy’s use of subcontractors, cap its liability, narrow its indemnity, and align insurance requirements with its actual coverage. We then worked through the company’s counter-redline item by item, including a new volume pricing clause, until the agreement was ready to sign.
Case Study
A technology consultancy that places fractional chief technology officers with startups asked us to review its customer agreement and, later, its advisor agreement. We revised the customer agreement so the consultancy could sign clients quickly, and took the advisor agreement through three rounds of revisions covering scope, compensation, and ownership of the work.
Case Study
A construction software company registered the name of one of its products for its online software services. When the ten-year renewal came due, we prepared and filed it, and the USPTO accepted the renewal.
Client names and identifying details are withheld. Results depend on the facts of each matter, and past results don’t guarantee a similar outcome.
The Schenk Law Firm is based in North Park, San Diego. We advise software and AI companies throughout California, and our trademark work covers companies nationwide.
Founder equity, vesting, and investment rounds.
Contract Drafting & Negotiation
Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating the agreements a business runs on.
Entity Formation & Structuring
Choosing and forming the right company and setting up its ownership.
Trademark searches, applications, and protection for brand names and logos.
Trademark vs. Copyright vs. Patent
How the three kinds of IP protection differ.
Ongoing legal support for businesses without an in-house lawyer.
Whether you’re signing a large customer, hiring developers, or naming a product, we can review the terms and protect what you’re building.
Contact us today to discuss your technology company.
Request a ConsultationIt’s a document under a master services agreement that describes a specific project: the deliverables, timeline, and price. The master agreement sets the legal terms that apply to every statement of work.
It caps how much one party can recover from the other, often at the fees paid under the contract.
Under current U.S. Copyright Office guidance, material generated entirely by AI isn’t protected, but human authorship in selecting, arranging, or editing it can be. Contracts should address who owns AI-assisted work.
It’s often wise. An intent-to-use application can reserve your priority before you launch, and a search first can help you avoid a costly rename.