Most business attorneys can review your contracts. Fewer can tell you whether your trademark filing strategy will hold up against a competitor’s challenge, or why your employment agreements might be leaving your trade secrets exposed.
Elliott Alderman does both and has been doing it for over four decades.
From the Copyright Office to Championship Teams
Elliott’s path to intellectual property law started inside the U.S. Copyright Office, where he worked as an attorney shaping the policies that govern how creative work is protected in America.
That government experience gave him something most IP attorneys never get: a deep understanding of how regulators think, what examiners look for, and where the system creates gaps that can hurt businesses.
From there, he moved into private practice and eventually became outside counsel to a 3-time NBA Championship team, handling their intellectual property and licensing strategy. Professional sports teams generate enormous IP value: logos, merchandise, broadcast rights, licensing agreements with dozens of partners. Managing that portfolio requires someone who understands both the legal technicalities and the business implications of every decision.
That combination policy-level expertise plus real-world commercial application is what Elliott brings to every client relationship.
Why IP Expertise Matters for Growing Companies
Here’s what most founders don’t realize: intellectual property issues don’t wait until you’re big enough to have an IP department. They start on day one.
Your company name? That’s a trademark question. The code your engineer wrote before you hired them full-time? That’s a copyright ownership question. The process your team developed that gives you a competitive edge?
That’s a trade secret question. The product feature you’re about to launch? That could be a patent question or a freedom-to-operate question if someone else already filed.
Most of these issues hide inside “regular” business decisions. You sign a contractor agreement without proper IP assignment language, and suddenly you don’t own the work you paid for. You bring on a co-founder without addressing invention ownership, and two years later you’re in a dispute that could sink your company. You wait too long to file a trademark, and a competitor claims priority.
These aren’t edge cases. They’re everyday risks that most business attorneys miss because they don’t have deep IP training. Elliott catches them because after 40+ years, he knows exactly where the landmines sit.
The Integration Advantage
At Garcia-Zamor, we don’t separate “business law” from “IP law” the way most firms do. When Elliott reviews your situation, he’s looking at both dimensions simultaneously.
Partnership agreement? He’s checking the IP co-ownership implications. Employment offer letter? He’s verifying the invention assignment language. Customer contract? He’s examining the licensing terms and indemnification clauses that could expose your proprietary technology.
This matters because most fractional legal providers offer business law only. When IP questions arise, they refer you elsewhere which means coordination headaches, communication gaps, and double the legal spend. We handle both in one place, with attorneys who actually talk to each other.
What This Means for You
If you’re building something worth protecting a product, a brand, a process, a piece of technology intellectual property strategy can’t be an afterthought. It needs to be woven into every business decision from the beginning.
That’s what Elliott does. And it’s why having deep IP expertise alongside business law capability isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s the difference between building on a solid foundation and hoping the cracks don’t show up during due diligence.
Want to know more? Let’s talk through it. No pressure, no sales pitch – just a clear picture of where your legal foundation stands and what support might look like. Contact the Garcia-Zamor Law Firm today at 410-531-9853 (www.garcia-zamor). While the Garcia-Zamor team is glad to handle individual business law matters, hiring them as dedicated outsourced in-house counsel provides clients with the most dedicated, proactive service with predictable legal costs.
