Jake L. Bryant

Jake Bryant is a member of the firm’s General Commercial group where his practice focuses on intellectual property protection and litigation, technology, data privacy compliance and litigation, branding/media rights, rights of publicity, and corporate matters. He also assists clients with dealmaking and procedures related to the development and integration of large language models (LLMs) and other forms of generative artificial intelligence. Prior to joining Gentry Locke, Jake served as Of Counsel at a boutique intellectual property law firm and was a research assistant for the Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy (now the IP Policy Institute).

Jake earned his J.D. from Liberty University School of Law where he was the Notes & Comments Editor of the Liberty University Law Review, Vice President of the Liberty Law Intellectual Property Clinic, Executive Chair of the Business & Transactional Law Society, and was a national finalist in the 2023 Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Tournament hosted by the International Trademark Association. He received his LL.M. in Intellectual Property from the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School, with a focus on artificial intelligence and law & economics. Jake’s published scholarship focuses on the intersection of intellectual property and emerging technologies.

A quick handshake

•What is your favorite thing about your job?

I love helping businesses of any nature realize that their intellectual property is extremely valuable. From helping entities protect their names and goodwill to helping them navigate the often murky waters of IP and technology agreements, my favorite part of my job is making sure your intangible assets are as secure as your personal property.

•What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not working?

I love photography, golf, reading, and film. I am an avid movie-watcher, anything from classics (Casablanca is a personal favorite) to science fiction or dramas. I am a huge fan of the authors Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Tolkien, and Norman Maclean, as well as the Irish musician, Dermot Kennedy. My great passions, however, lie in photography and fiction writing.

•What life lesson do you think we all should follow?

Pursue righteousness. The ends rarely justify the means and too many things affect our outcomes in life. The best thing we can do is try to live with good intentions and act justly with what we can control. If we remain stalwart in the endless pursuit of loving and living well, peace usually finds us.

Experience

•Managed the registration, maintenance, or development of over 400 federally registered trademarks
•Office actions and appeals with the USPTO and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (T.T.A.B.)
•Copyright registrations, DMCA enforcement, and copyright infringement litigation
•Litigated and helped to favorably resolve various intellectual property, technology, non-compete, and website-oriented ADA disputes in districts across the 4th, 7th, 9th, and 11th
•SaaS and data processing agreements
•Development and termination of IT managed and cloud-based services agreements
•Agreements covering the development and integration of large language models and other forms of generative artificial intelligence.
•Privacy policy development and data breach response
•Branding and entertainment
•Media rights deals, rights of publicity
•Trade secrets and unfair competition
•Assisted with the development, facilitation, and execution of multimillion dollar equity and asset acquisition deals

Speaking Engagements

•F aculty and Speaker , Virginia State Bar 46th Annual Construction Law and Public Contracts Seminar 2025. Topic - “The Effects of Copyright and Trademark Law on the Construction Industry.”
•F aculty and Speaker , 2025 Gentry Locke Seminars. Topic - “Anatomy of a Trademark: Helping Clients Fortify their Brands and Avoid Infringement”

Published Work

•Author, A new trademark catfight: Puma opposes Tiger Woods’ Sun Day Red trademark application, The Trademark Lawyer (January 2025).
•Author, Auctorem Ex Machina: A Case for Human Copyright Authorship in Works Created Using Generative Artificial Intelligence, AIPLA Quarterly Journal (October 2024).
•Contributor, Commentary in Response to the Official Inquiry of the U.S. Copyright Office Regarding Copyright and Generative AI, American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) (October 2023).
•Author, Dancing in the Dark: Exploring the Collision of Copyright with NFTs & the Works They Represent, 17 Liberty University Law Review 71 (September 2022).

Library

•Publicly Available vs. Public Domain: When Are Copyrighted Works Free To Use?
Articles
Jan 2026
•Executive Order Targeting State AI Regulation Shakes Up State Enforcement
Articles
Dec 2025
•Five Ways Your Business is Probably Affected by Intellectual Property Law
Articles
Oct 2024
•Reviewing Copyright & Generative AI: The Good, the Bad, and the Unanswered
Articles
Jul 2024
•Virginia’s Right to Privacy and its Impacts on Marketing
Articles
Jul 2024
•What’s in a Name: Supreme Court Upholds Constitutionality of Federal Trademark Statute Against Free-Speech Claims in Vidal v. Elster
Articles
Jul 2024
•Gentry Locke Welcomes Intellectual Property and Business Law Attorney Jake L. Bryant to its Roanoke Office
News
Jun 2024