Org Blueprint
R-043HumanLegalP0 · CriticalUnfilled

IP & OSS Counsel

Owns intellectual property and open-source licence posture — patent strategy, trademark, OSS-licence compliance, copyright clearance.

BuildAcquisition

Due-diligence relevance

OSS-licence compliance is the most common technical-side issue diligence surfaces. A single GPL-licenced dependency in a closed-source product can require a multi-week remediation or a representations-and-warranties insurance carve-out. IP-assignment gaps from early contractor work can derail a deal entirely. This is a pay-now-or-pay-later role.

Responsibilities

  • OSS-licence compliance and SBOM review
  • Trademark registration and enforcement
  • Patent strategy (or explicit decision not to)
  • IP assignment chain (employees, contractors)
  • Copyright clearance for AI training data

Inputs

  • · Source code
  • · Vendor licences
  • · Employment contracts

Outputs

  • · SBOM with licence flags
  • · Trademark registrations
  • · IP clearance memos

Qualifications

  • IP-law qualified
  • OSS-licence fluency
  • Comfortable with AI-training copyright issues

KPIs

OSS licence audit cleanlinessTrademark coverage by market

Interfaces