Owen Seitel

Owen has more than thirty years of experience focusing on transactions and litigation involving intellectual property and business matters. His clients are active in the converging entertainment, arts, sports, fitness, publishing, new media, and technology sectors and include filmmakers, musicians, writers, NFT creators, artists, athletes, health clubs and specialized physical fitness providers, and others involved in the sports and fitness industries, music, and live event producers, and distributors of all forms of entertainment, sports, and informational content.

Owen regularly counsels and represents graphic artists and creative services firms who provide branding, naming, package design, and similar creative services to others, with a particular focus on counseling and representing creative agencies in their negotiations and contracting with consumer goods and services companies for creative services and deliverables. Owen handles a broad range of transactional matters – all aspects of the creation, protection, licensing, and distribution of intellectual property – and litigation of business and intellectual property disputes in state and federal courts, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, as well as before arbitration panels, both domestically and internationally, including Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy panels. Owen counsels and assists business enterprises at all stages: from the idea and start-up stage, through financing and growth, joint venture and merger, and acquisition to dissolution.

Owen is an adjunct professor at Golden Gate University School of Law and he frequently appears as a panelist at various technology, multimedia, sports, entertainment, legal and industry conferences.

He is a member of the California and San Francisco Bar Associations, the ABA Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, the Intellectual Property Law Section of the California State Bar Association, the Sports Lawyers Association, and the International Trademark Association. Owen formerly served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Headlands Center for the Arts, which provides residencies and workspace for emerging and mid-career artists from around the world in former military buildings located in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in Marin County, California.

When he has time to vacation, he often seeks a warm beach, like those where he grew up in south Florida. He is always down to grab some tasty Indian food or sushi, which must be accompanied by an ice cold beer (or two). Owen loves baseball and carves out time to go to Spring Training with his daughter every year. He’s inspired by artists like Bruce Springsteen, Roy Lichtenstein, Gordon Parks, Tom Petty, Diplo, and Wayne Shorter, to name just a few.

When he isn’t helping his clients, you will probably find him on his bike, dodging cars in San Francisco or climbing the hills of the Marin Headlands.