When anyone can generate content in seconds, the value in a brand-driven or creative business increasingly shifts from production to ownership: what the company actually owns, what it can prove, and what it can control. Yet many founder-led brands, agencies, creative studios, course companies, and creator-led businesses rely on assets created by contractors, agencies, co-founders, and increasingly, AI tools—with documentation that does not always match the ownership the client assumes. These gaps often remain invisible until a licensing deal, investment, acquisition, or dispute forces the issue.

This CLE program provides attorneys with a practical framework for examining a client’s ownership position before a transaction does it for them. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of trademark, copyright, and international brand practice, the presenter examines recurring chain-of-title gaps involving brand, content, software, and curriculum assets; the current state of copyright authorship for AI-assisted works and how to structure client processes accordingly; contractor, agency, and work-made-for-hire issues that frequently create problems during diligence; the growing body of digital replica and likeness rights affecting creators and talent; and why trademark registration alone does not establish ownership of a company’s broader asset base.

Attendees will leave with a structured inventory and verification approach, a diligence-ready document checklist, and practical client-facing language for addressing ownership issues.