Estate Planning for Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents, and Other Intellectual Property Rights
Identifying IP Assets, Valuation Issues, Assigning or Transferring IP, Drafting Bequests and Structuring Trusts

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
Intermediate
- work Practice Area
Estate Planning
- event Date
Thursday, August 22, 2024
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
-
This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE webinar will provide estate planners with a comprehensive guide to specific estate planning issues and legal considerations for copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual property (IP) rights. The panel will discuss identifying IP in estate planning, valuation, drafting bequests of intellectual assets, assigning or transferring IP, post-death estate administration and handling disputes, and structuring trusts designed to hold literary works, artworks, and intangible IP rights.
Faculty

Ms. Herren is a litigator, patent attorney and experienced trial attorney whose practice focuses on managing complex assets, technology, digital assets and intellectual property (IP) in wealth and tax planning to litigation and licensing. Her experience includes high-value trust litigation and IP litigation in state and federal courts. Having served as in-house counsel, Ms. Herren values business ideals and advocates for early implementation of dispute avoidance and resolution strategies. She represents individuals and fiduciaries who manage unique assets – including IP, rights of publicity and cryptocurrencies. As a seasoned litigator, Ms. Herren views wealth planning as pre-conflict resolution. She is well versed in all aspects of state and federal trial practice, including representation before governing tax bodies. Ms. Herren is a member of the Trust and Estates Executive Committee of the California Lawyers Association and Vice-Chair for the Alternative Dispute Resolution committee of the American Bar Association section of Real Property, Trust and Estate. Northern California Super Lawyers named her a Super Lawyer in 2023 and Rising Star from 2016 to 2020. She writes and speaks regularly on topic of litigation, trusts & estates and cross-over issues with IP. Ms. Herren is a chapter editor for CEB Trust and Probate Litigation and, for three years, she was a case alert author for the Trust and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association. She has spoken at legal and industry conferences across the county from San Francisco to Washington D.C., Austin to New York City.

Mr. Bybee is a Senior Attorney in the Estate Planning Group at Stone Law Offices, Ltd. He graduated with honors from the J. Reuben Clark Law School where he also served on the editorial board of the BYU Journal of Public Law. While earning his law degree, Mr. Bybee also completed requirements to graduate with his Masters of Public Administration from the Marriott School of Management. Since his admission to the bar in 2011, he has practiced primarily in the areas of trusts, estates, and business organization. Mr. Bybee enjoys helping clients organize their estates, protect their property, and plan for business succession. He regularly co-counsels with attorneys throughout the country who are seeking the benefits of Nevada's favorable trust and asset protection laws for their clients. Mr. Bybee has been recognized by Mountain States Super Lawyers as a “Rising Star” in the area of Estate Planning and Probate.
Description
Taxpayers who have significant self-generated intellectual property assets, such as copyrights to artistic or literary works, trademarks, service marks or patents, and other IP rights, face specific estate planning challenges in ensuring that ownership of these assets and their related income streams are passed for the benefit of family descendants or other designated beneficiaries. Planners serving these clients must understand the intersection of the Internal Revenue Code, the Copyright Act, and other applicable federal regulations in structuring estate and trust documents to efficiently transfer IP rights to beneficiaries.
Estate planners must ensure that IP rights are correctly registered, understand mechanisms to assign or transfer such rights, meet the criteria for the client to pass his/her rights on to others, and minimize disputes over IP in post-death administration. Additionally, planners must identify those assets and structure will documents and trusts to avoid unintended tax consequences.
Understanding valuation of future royalty streams from intellectual property is also a must for estate planners serving clients who have IP rights in their self-created assets. By utilizing LLCs or other incorporated vehicles, planners can minimize tax by documenting valuation discounts upon transfer of assets to these vehicles.
Listen as our experienced panel provides practical guidance on the unique challenges and benefits of structuring estate plans for intellectual property rights.
Outline
- Key issues when incorporating IP assets in estate planning
- Intersection of Internal Revenue Code and Copyright Act
- Foreign considerations for copyrights held by estates and trusts
- Trademarks and service marks
- Patents
- Structuring trusts and LLCs
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- Types of assets and how to pass them down in light of current federal regulations
- Structuring an LLC in conjunction with a trust to hold intellectual property assets
- Best practices for utilizing valuation discounts
- License vs. sale and valuation considerations
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Unlimited access to premium CLE, CPE, Professional Skills and Practice-Ready courses.:
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