David L. Odom

David’s national and international clients also acknowledge their trademarks, trademarks and portfolio management require experience, skill, and acumen. Bolstered by his experience, David has substantial depth in conducting in-house trademark searches, clearance, registration, and portfolio management on an international scale. He represents global brands and manages portfolios for organizations headquartered throughout the world, ranging from large corporations to start-ups. He works with clients to understand their business in order to provide the most effective and strategic legal advice from the planning and launch of a brand through its implementation, growth, and protection.

David’s valuable experience also extends to collaborating with professional search firms, and if necessary, conducting investigations to ensure that his clients have the most comprehensive trademark information available. With this information in hand, David provides advice and counsel to clients on strategies to overcome barriers and during the registration process, including changing the trademark, seeking consent, or instituting proceedings. David also advises clients on strategic foreign filings and offers the advantage of his longstanding global relationships with his network of international law firms, which is beneficial when protecting clients’ intellectual property rights throughout the world and across multiple jurisdictions.

As part of global portfolio management, David regularly assesses clients’ portfolios and identifies trademarks and geographic areas that require enhanced or discontinued protection. He also assists in implementing trademark policing programs, with the use of cease and desist and other means, to protect against dilution or loss of trademark rights. This supports clients in preventing or minimizing damage before it leads to expensive and time-consuming litigation.

In the wake of rapid technological innovation, the complexity level of IP, in particular, copyright issues has increased exponentially. David is experienced in tackling these multifaceted issues and providing innovative solutions. In light of these advancements, copyrights are now created, distributed, exploited, and owned in non-traditional ways. David has in-depth familiarity with these issues, as well as content-specific copyright matters, including risks with use and ownership of user- generated content and content sharing (i.e., video, audio, photo, etc.). David regularly counsels clients pertaining to the registration of their copyrights in all types of works, including graphics, music, text, video, photography and images and software, and advises on copyright licensing, enforcement, and fair use matters. David has experience enforcing rights through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), as well as drafting copyright software licenses, website related agreements, and work-for-hire agreements.

IP/IT/Technology Agreements and Transactions

David also assists clients with IP rights in a multitude of corporate transactions, including intellectual property due diligence and audits in connection with M&A transactions, public offerings, and financings, as well as to negotiate and draft corporate purchase, acquisition and financing agreements. David works with Shackelford’s employment attorneys when needed to draft employment contracts to ensure the protection of corporate-owned IP and trade secrets and develop employee policies to help educate the employees and to protect the employer’s brand and reputation.

David has substantial experience in drafting and resolving issues in many IT/IP/Technology related agreements. Specifically, David advises clients regarding employee invention agreements, independent contractor agreements, technology-related agreements, nondisclosure agreements, exclusivity arrangements, and distribution agreements, among others. Mr. Odom also has advised, drafted and negotiated a plethora of other transactional and intellectual property matters, including IT and vendor contracts, licensing of patents, technology, trademarks, brands, copyrights and software agreements, as well as other numerous technology and IP related agreements including master services agreements, software agreements, development agreements, joint venture agreements, trademark clearance, and numerous cease and desist letters, among others.

Pre-Legal Career

Prior to his legal career, David was a commissioned officer (Captain) in the U.S. Air Force and aviator with over 2000 combined flying hours in the KC-135A and B-1B bomber aircraft. During his B-1B flight career, David also served as an electronics engineering liaison in cooperation with a defense contractor in the aviation defense B-1B flight simulation facility at Dyess AFB. David is also a Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran.