Watson & Young, PLLC

Watson & Young, PLLC Watson & Young is a modern legal team empowering digital entrepreneurs by trademarking their ideas.

08/06/2026

An ice cream brand just won almost $24 million. Not because someone stole their name. Because a competitor's pint looked too much like theirs.

A court ordered Rebel Creamery to pay Van Leeuwen $23.785 million over the packaging. The pastel colors, the matching lids, the black script, that clean look you'd know on a shelf. No stolen name, no stolen logo. Just the vibe of the pint.

That's trade dress. The law can protect how your product looks, not only what it's called.

But the part that stuck with me isn't the money. It's how they won. Van Leeuwen kept everything. The early drafts, the tossed ideas, the old files with dates on them. Proof of exactly how and when their brand came to life.

Noticing someone copied you is easy. Proving you did it first is the hard part.

So save the messy middle, not just the final logo. That clutter you're tempted to delete is your evidence someday.

Because one day "that looks like mine" might need to become "here's the proof."

08/04/2026

The truth is, taking care of the brand that takes care of you has always been kinda chic ✨

6 years running.We’re Zara Watson-Young and Sean Young, intellectual property and business attorneys who show up the sam...
07/24/2026

6 years running.

We’re Zara Watson-Young and Sean Young, intellectual property and business attorneys who show up the same way whether it’s a trademark filing, a contract we’re combing through line by line, or a fight that lands in litigation.

Super Lawyers Rising Stars selects a small percentage of attorneys each year, and it comes through peer nomination. Other lawyers pointing at your work. 6 years in a row, and getting to do it side by side, means something to us.

Our 100+ 5 ⭐️ reviews say the rest!

People think a strategy session only covers trademarks. It's much deeper than that.Yes, the word "trademark" is in the n...
07/20/2026

People think a strategy session only covers trademarks. It's much deeper than that.

Yes, the word "trademark" is in the name. So most people book one assuming it's a single question: can I register my name? And that's part of it. But it's rarely the thing putting their brand at the most risk.

By the end of most sessions, we've talked about the contract with no ownership clause. The course that was never actually protected. The copycat they didn't think they could touch. The partnership that needs sorting before it turns into a problem.

Because the session isn't really about filing a name. It's about the bigger picture: what you own, what you're building, and where you're exposed right now.

Trademarks are a major piece of that. They're just not the whole thing.

So you don't need a "trademark problem" to book one. If it touches what you built, it's worth the conversation.

DM us PROTECT to book your session.

07/18/2026

“Nobody copied me yet” isn’t a brand protection strategy.

The problem usually starts before the copying.

It starts when another business files first, your application gets blocked, or you’re forced to reconsider a name you’ve already spent thousands building.

You don’t have to stop growing your brand. You do need to understand the legal risks before you invest even more into it.

Build the brand. Run the ads. Protect what you’re building.

If you’re building a brand you plan to scale, book a Trademark Strategy Session through the link in our bio.

protectyourbrand

A contract can’t make someone do the right thing.It only decides what happens when they don’t.That’s the part most found...
07/17/2026

A contract can’t make someone do the right thing.

It only decides what happens when they don’t.

That’s the part most founders misunderstand. They think a signed agreement means they’re safe. What it actually gives you is a claim.

Leverage. A starting position. It doesn’t reach out and force the other person to comply.

And a claim only matters if someone’s willing to enforce it. That’s where it gets real. Locating a person who’s gone quiet. Serving them. The back and forth that can stretch on for months. Most people never see that part until they’re in it.

So protection isn’t just the document. It’s the document plus a team willing to go get what you’re owed.

A contract is your starting position, not your finish line. Make sure you have both.

The messiest disputes almost always happen between two people who liked each other.That's the part nobody expects. You d...
07/16/2026

The messiest disputes almost always happen between two people who liked each other.

That's the part nobody expects. You don't sign a contract because you're bracing for a villain. You sign one because two people can hear the exact same conversation and walk away remembering it completely differently. No bad intent required.

One of you thought revisions were unlimited. The other thought it was one round. One of you assumed the logo was theirs the second they paid the deposit. The other knows ownership doesn't transfer until the final invoice clears.

Nobody's lying. There's just no agreement to point to. So now you're scrolling old DMs trying to prove what was supposed to happen.

A contract doesn't mean you don't trust someone. It means you respect the work, and the relationship, enough to make the terms clear while everyone's still happy.

Shop our attorney-drafted contract templates at the link in our bio.

07/15/2026

The market usually decides your name is valuable long before you do.

That's the part of the Hot Girl Walk story founders should sit with. Mia Lind made up a phrase for a walk. It turned into a movement, a community, and a name people recognized on sight. Not because anyone declared it a brand. Because the audience treated it like one.
And most founders are still waiting for permission to do the same. It's too early. It's not that serious yet. It's just a phrase I say.

Then other people start using it. For their offers, their communities, their content. And suddenly the thing you casually named is something you're fighting to keep.

No, not every viral phrase can or should be a trademark. Some are too common to own, and trying can backfire badly.

But if you're building a business around a name, and your audience knows you by that name, that's not a phrase anymore. That's an asset. And the time to find out what you can protect is before controlling it gets expensive.

07/14/2026

Everything AI makes comes from something a human made first. Which means your work, your face, your voice, your ideas are all sitting in the pile somewhere.

That's what has creators nervous right now, and honestly, that fear is reasonable. People are already generating images of themselves, of other people, of brands they don't own. The tools are only getting better at it.

But the answer isn't to stop creating. It's to actually know what you own.

Because not everything is protected the same way. Your general ideas? You can't own those. Your content may have copyright protection, but that doesn't make every use of it illegal. Your business name, your program name, your slogan, your podcast? Those are trademark territory. Your voice, your face, your likeness? That's a whole different set of questions.

Most founders are creating to grow and monetize, and almost none of them have stopped to sort out which piece of their brand falls where.

Here's the thing worth sitting with. In the AI era, your content isn't the only thing at risk. Your identity is.

07/13/2026

You bought the .com. Felt like the brand was officially yours.

We get it. Honestly, most founders think that. You pay for the domain, it shows up in your name, and it feels like ownership. But a domain and a trademark do two very different things, and nobody tells you that until it's a problem.

A domain is your address. It helps people find you. That's all it does. It gives you zero legal claim to the name itself.

A trademark is what actually makes the name yours. It's what separates you from everyone else in your industry, and it's what lets you stop someone from using it.
So here's the part that stings. You can own the domain, build the site, invest in the branding, print the packaging, run the ads, launch the whole thing, and still find out that someone else has stronger rights to the name you built all of it on.

The address doesn't come with the deed.

Check whether the name can actually be protected before you build a brand on top of it. A domain helps people find you. A trademark is what lets you keep what they found.

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244 Madison Avenue #1054
New York, NY
10016

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Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm

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+18446590358

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