Ben Setnick is a partner at Champion LLP, where he leads the firm’s Intellectual Property practice group. His practice spans the full life cycle of intellectual property, from ideation, brand development, and invention harvesting through copyright and trademark prosecution, patent portfolio strategy, licensing, enforcement, and litigation. Ben is a trusted adviser who is equally comfortable negotiating licenses, training marketing teams, and counseling executives and individuals on the risks presented by artificial intelligence, privacy, third-party intellectual property, advertising, and product development.

Ben previously spent more than seven years as senior in-house intellectual property and litigation counsel for a global, publicly traded technology company, where he was responsible for the worldwide IP portfolio of more than 45 consumer brands. There, he directed patent and trademark litigation as both plaintiff and defendant, brought management of a portfolio of more than 2,000 trademark registrations in-house, supervised and directed patent prosecution, created company policies on the use of third-party IP, open-source software, and generative AI, and advised engineering, product, marketing, and executive teams on IP and litigation risk. Ben began his legal career in the intellectual property and commercial litigation practices of two large law firms.

Before earning his law degree from SMU Dedman School of Law, Ben earned a Bachelor of Science in Radio-Television-Film from The University of Texas at Austin and worked for more than a decade in film production, technology consulting, and computer network and information-security engineering. That background lets him speak the language of engineering, security, and product teams, and he pairs it with in-house and large-firm legal experience to give clients practical, actionable advice.

Outside the office, Ben is an avid pilot, a glider flight instructor, and a proud dad.