Our Firm
Excellence isn’t just our standard—it’s our foundation. We deliver sophisticated legal solutions designed to protect, strengthen, and elevate your brand.
Our attorneys excel at distilling complex legal concepts so we can provide intellectual property counsel rooted in real-world context.
Whether you’re building a brand from the ground up or safeguarding an established legacy, we provide high-caliber legal counsel at rates that make sense.
What We Do
Exceptional client service is at the heart of our legal practice. Our attorneys are dedicated to the success of our clients’ businesses and brands. We advise on IP protection strategy, obtain trademark and copyright registrations, negotiate agreements, and maintain IP assets for our clients. We help businesses navigate complex intellectual property and contractual matters with practical, business-focused legal counsel. Our attorneys respond quickly, answer questions thoroughly, and solve problems efficiently – our favorite answer is YES.
We partner with brand agencies to provide seamless intellectual property resources and support. Our services include bulk name availability and clearance searches to identify potential conflicts prior to creation of new brand identities. We also offer legal guidance on trademark and logo development, helping agencies avoid legal obstacles while maintaining creative freedom for their clients. By integrating legal expertise early in the branding process, we help agencies and their clients build strong, resilient brands.
Our team oversees international trademark filings, renewals, and enforcement. We serve as a U.S.-based point of contact and executive lead, coordinating the efforts of foreign counsel to maintain global brand integrity. We also collaborate with foreign clients and their local counsel to obtain intellectual property protection in the U.S. By providing a centralized, strategic approach to international portfolio management, we help businesses maximize the value of their intellectual property worldwide.
Having served as in-house counsel ourselves, we understand what legal departments need. Our attorneys are responsive and efficient, delivering work product tailored to each client’s particular industry and risk tolerance, always in compliance with client forms and standard practices. We act as an extension of a client’s in-house legal team. We also offer specialty training and workshops to educate legal teams, marketing departments, and stakeholders on intellectual property best practices and infringement risk mitigation.
We embed experienced attorneys within client companies for short- or long-term engagements, offering dedicated legal support to cover employee leave, high volume transactions, or other temporary staffing needs. Our attorneys are also available to assist clients with special projects, including developing best practices guides, contract playbooks, large-scale trademark clearance work and design of enforcement programs.
Bold Clients, Bold Solutions
From our main offices in Washington, D.C. and Denver, Colorado, we serve regional, national, and global clients doing business in the U.S. across the spectrum of commerce.
Our attorneys work with individuals and businesses at all stages of growth, from individuals just beginning their brand development to enterprise organizations with global portfolios. Here are just a few highlights of the clients we serve.
Artists, Designers & Creatives
If you work in graphic arts, fashion design, music production, visual media, or another creative space, you already know that creating a unique piece is only the first step in putting your work out into the world. Our attorneys understand that competition is fierce and copycats abound. We work with both individuals and businesses to determine how to protect and monetize intellectual property, so you can focus on your creative efforts and not the legal details.
Startups
Whether you plan to bring goods or services to the market, it’s a savvy move to develop legal protection for your intellectual property assets alongside your product. We assist companies in the startup stage with both initial branding strategy and securing federal trademark and copyright protections as soon as possible, so you can launch and grow your business with confidence.
Cannabis
Although the cannabis industry has grown and matured in the last decade, navigating legal protection for your cannabis brand remains a challenge. District Trademark’s attorneys stay current with the latest developments in cannabis law. Our clients can rely on our knowledge and experience to find creative solutions to protecting cannabis brands and securing trademark protection to the extent legally possible.
Professional Services
Professional services firms often face unique branding challenges, especially as they grow their goodwill and reputation beyond their founding members. We work with professional services firms when they are incorporating new partners, expanding to new markets, or launching complementary products and services. Our goal is to help you minimize risk and protect your brand as your firm grows.
Nonprofit and Mission-Driven Organizations
We help nonprofits and mission-driven organizations protect their intellectual property so they can focus on making an impact. From securing trademarks for names, logos, and signature programs to drafting agreements that ensure brands are used responsibly, we provide strategic legal support tailored to the nonprofit sector’s unique needs. Our team also advises on copyright protection for educational materials, advocacy campaigns, and creative content to safeguard vital work.
Collaboration
Our focus on intellectual property and brand protection does not leave our clients out of luck if they need legal services beyond our scope. Our wide network of trusted referral partners, including specialists in litigation, patents, employment, and corporate law, are always on standby to provide our clients with the same level of exceptional service that they have come to expect from District Trademark.
Who We Are
Angela G. Shin
Managing Partner | VCard
Angela is the co-founder of District Trademark. She is an experienced intellectual property and transactional business attorney. Before founding District Trademark, Angela served as in-house counsel for a major U.S. media corporation. She also worked as an attorney for top global law firms, where she advised clients on complex matters in connection with the prosecution, licensing, and transfer of trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property. She was honored to be named a Rising Star in Intellectual Property by Colorado SuperLawyers during her years in private practice, in addition to her membership in the Colorado Intellectual Property American Inn of Court.
Angela has also been fortunate to work as in-house counsel for The Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the most respected and well-known charitable trusts in the United States, and has served in a communications role for the “I Have a Dream” Foundation. She currently serves on the board of Open Arms Housing, a Washington-based organization providing support to homeless families.
Outside of her legal practice, Angela is a jewelry artist and entrepreneur. She is also an avid hiker, skier, and tequila taster.
Professional licensure: Angela was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 2007 and the Virginia Bar (as Registered Corporate Counsel) in 2012.
Education: Angela earned her J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law in 2007. While in law school, she spent a semester in Japan studying international law. Angela also completed her undergraduate work at the University of Colorado, where she earned a B.A. in English Literature and a B.S. in Journalism.
Paulina G. Proper
Managing Partner | VCard
Paulina Proper is the co-founder of District Trademark. She has focused her legal career on intellectual property and commercial transactions. Her passion for trademark law comes from years of experience advising clients on all aspects of business transactions, including due diligence and the licensing and transfer of intellectual property. Before founding District Trademark, Paulina was in-house counsel for one of the largest commercial real estate companies in the country, and prior to that, she worked as an attorney for top regional and boutique law firms.
Paulina currently serves on the Trademarks Committee of the Association of Intellectual Property Firms and is a volunteer for the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts. Paulina is also active with the D.C. Bar Association, where she is a member of the Law Practice Management Community Steering Committee.
After graduating from college, Paulina founded, developed, and sold a test-prep and tutoring company. She has practiced yoga since law school and is a level one Baptiste instructor.
Professional licensure: Paulina was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 2007, the Arizona Bar in 2012, and the District of Columbia Bar in 2013.
Education: Paulina earned her J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law. As a law student, Paulina participated in the law school’s Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, where she provided legal advice on intellectual property and corporate issues to startups in Colorado’s growing business market. Paulina earned her B.A. from Yale University with a major in the History of Art.