Joshua A. Traub

Creative individuals need an attorney who understands their passions, whose name they know and who can guide them through the complicated maze of their legal worries. Creative individuals need an attorney to help them build their dreams.

That is where I come in. My name is Josh Traub, an Attorney living in the San Francisco Bay Area focusing on legal needs of game designers, artists, makers, and entrepreneurs.

Originally a computer scientist, I later pursued a legal degree and have a Masters in Intellectual Property. I have worked with cutting-edge payment platforms, manufacturing and distribution, artists, musicians, and writers. My extensive experience also includes licensing, contract negotiation, copyright, trademark, First Amendment concerns, VARA, as well as general corporate and litigation matters. My clients include start-up businesses, non-profits, and individual artists.

I graduated with honors from Georgia Tech with a Bachelors in Computer Science followed by a Masters Degree in the History of Technology. While completing my degrees, I taught undergraduate classes on intellectual property for computer scientists in the shadow of the then-shocking State Street Bank holding and the controversy over the hacking of the DVD encryption standard CSS. Before I even began my work in the law, I was explaining the importance of proper licensing of proprietary software and business methods to engineers who would soon make a living in fields dependent on intellectual property and its value.

My true passion is in bridging the gap between business interests and engineers, and that interest led to my pursuit of a J.D. at Georgia State University College of Law. My law school coursework naturally emphasized copyright, trademark, entertainment and Internet law. During my studies, I received the ABA/BNA Award for Excellence in the Study of Intellectual Property Law. I became a member if the Georgia Bar in 2005. My professional career in intellectual property began at Georgia Lawyers for the Arts where I helped protect fine artists, writers, and musicians throughout Georgia.

I moved to California seeking to unite my legal experience with the Silicon Valley legal market. I continued my education at Santa Clara University, seeking a Legal Masters in Intellectual Property. My LLM coursework included privacy law, business and IP Directives of the European Union, rights of publicity, antitrust, trade secret law, and technology licensing. During my LLM, I also worked as intern associate counsel at TrialPay, Inc. a start-up building innovative payment platforms for customer retention and conversion. While studying for the California Bar, I acted as outside counsel for Georgia corporations protecting trademarks, developing NDA and partnership agreements, and negotiating and drafting licenses for the manufacture of and distribution of proprietary education goods.

In 2013, I started J. Traub Legal to dedicate my professional efforts to protecting the creative communities I most care about: writers, artists, musicians, game designers, makers, and small business looking to improve the world.