Business Law & IP Attorney in Tulsa, OK
You've built something real. But if your business structure, your operating agreements, your brand, and your personal estate plan aren't connected then what you've built is more exposed than you think. We help Tulsa business owners get the legal foundation right.
Licensed in Oklahoma
WealthCounsel Member Attorney
Oklahoma Bar Association
Most Business Owners Are More Legally Exposed Than They Realize.
Starting a business takes everything you have. Most owners spend their early years focused on the work itself getting clients, delivering results, building a reputation. The legal side gets deferred. An LLC gets formed, maybe. An operating agreement gets downloaded from the internet. A trademark never gets registered because there wasn't time.
The problem is that the legal gaps you ignore while building become the problems you can't ignore later. A missing or poorly drafted operating agreement creates disputes between partners. A brand you've spent years building turns out to be unprotected, and someone else starts using it. Your personal assets are more connected to your business liabilities than they should be. And if something happens to you, there's no plan for what happens to the business.
Business legal planning may be overdue if:
You formed an LLC but never had a proper operating agreement drafted
You have a business partner and no buy-sell agreement in place
Your brand name, logo, or creative work has never been registered
Your personal estate plan and your business don't connect
You don't have a plan for what happens to the business if something happens to you
You're forming a new business and want to do it right from the start
You're running a nonprofit and need help with 501(c)(3) formation
Business Law & IP Services
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LLC Formation & Operating Agreements
Forming an LLC is the easy part. The operating agreement is what actually governs how your business runs, how decisions get made, how profits are split, and what happens when things go sideways.
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Buy-Sell Agreements
What happens to your business if a partner dies, becomes disabled, or wants out? Without a buy-sell agreement, the answer is unclear. A buy-sell agreement sets the rules in advance.
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Business Succession Planning
At some point, you will exit your business, by choice or not. Business succession planning makes sure that exit goes the way you want it to. Whether you're passing the business to a family member, selling to a partner, or planning for an outside sale
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Trademark Registration
Your business name, your logo, your slogan, none of it is legally protected until it's registered. Federal trademark registration gives you nationwide protection and the legal standing to stop someone else from using what you built. If you plan to grow, sell, or defend your brand, registration isn't optional.
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Copyright Registration
If you create courses, written content, designs, software, photography, music copyright registration gives you the legal tools to protect your work and pursue infringement if someone uses it without permission. Registration isn't required to own a copyright, but it is required to enforce it effectively.
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Nonprofit & 501(c)(3) Formation
Forming a nonprofit and obtaining 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status involves more than filing paperwork. It requires the right organizational structure, governing documents, and IRS application strategy. We help mission-driven founders get it done correctly from the start.
What Our Clients Had To Say
Why Tulsa Families and Business Owners Choose Wiszneauckas Law
An Attorney Who Has Been on Your Side of the Table
Before law school, Geoff spent 20 years in engineering, oil and gas, and corporate planning, including as Director of Corporate Planning. He understands how businesses actually operate, what decisions owners face, and why the legal side often gets deferred until something goes wrong. When you work with Geoff, you're working with someone who has been on your side of the table.
Business Law and Estate Planning in One Relationship
Most business owners need both, a solid business structure and a personal estate plan that connects to it. Very few attorneys do both well. At Wiszneauckas Law, your business plan and your personal plan are designed together so they actually work together. What happens to your business if something happens to you is a question that belongs in both conversations.
Intellectual Property From a Specialized Program
Geoff earned his law degree from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law one of the country's leading IP programs with a specialization in IP and Technology. Trademark and copyright work isn't an add-on service here. It's part of what we were trained to do.
How We Protect Everything You've Built
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Schedule Your FREE Consultation
We start with an honest conversation about your business how it's structured, what you own, what's at risk, and what your goals are. Just to get a clear-eyed look at where you are and what needs to be done.
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We’ll Design Your Custom Plan
We identify the legal gaps, recommend the right tools for your situation, and draft documents that are specific to your business, not pulled from a template. Whether you need an operating agreement, a buy-sell agreement, trademark filings, or all of the above, we map out exactly what's needed and why.
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Rest Easy Knowing Your Future Is Secure
You leave knowing your business is properly structured, your brand is protected, and your personal and business plans are connected. We're here as your situation changes, whether that means registering a new trademark, updating your succession plan, or building out the next stage of your business.
Serving Tulsa Business Owners and the Surrounding Communities
We serve business owners across Tulsa and the surrounding communities, including Broken Arrow, Owasso, Jenks, Bixby, Sand Springs, Sapulpa, Glenpool, Catoosa, Collinsville, Skiatook, Bartlesville, Claremore, Verdigris, Inola, Pryor Creek, Wagoner, Coweta, Muskogee, Mannford, Bristow, Okmulgee, and the rest of northeastern Oklahoma. Virtual consultations are available for clients across the state.
Your Business Deserves the Same Protection as Everything Else You've Built.
Most business owners know they need to get the legal side right. They just haven't made the time. One conversation is all it takes to find out what needs to be done and what it costs to do it.
Read More About Business Law & IP in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Running a business in Tulsa is hard work. Most owners spend their early years focused entirely on the work itself building a client base, delivering results, and growing revenue. The legal side gets deferred. An LLC gets formed, but the operating agreement is a free template downloaded from the internet. A brand name gets used for years without ever being registered.
Those gaps are manageable when things are going well. They become serious problems when a partner wants out, a competitor starts using your name, something happens to you, or it's time to sell.
Wiszneauckas Law helps business owners throughout Tulsa and the surrounding communities with LLC formation and operating agreements, buy-sell agreements, business succession planning, trademark registration, copyright registration, and nonprofit and 501(c)(3) formation.
Attorney Geoff Wiszneauckas brings an unusual combination of experience to business law practice. He spent 20 years in engineering, oil and gas, and corporate planning before law school including as Director of Corporate Planning and earned a specialization in IP and Technology from UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law, one of the country's leading IP programs. He is licensed in Oklahoma, a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association, and a WealthCounsel member attorney.
We serve business owners across Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Owasso, Jenks, Bixby, Sand Springs, Bartlesville, Claremore, Muskogee, and the rest of northeastern Oklahoma. Virtual consultations are available for clients anywhere in the state.
Wiszneauckas Law is located at 2626 E 21st St Suite 5, Tulsa, OK 74114. To schedule a free 90-minute consultation, call (918) 918-9479 or visit wiszlaw.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
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You don't legally need one. Oklahoma allows you to file your own Articles of Organization. But the filing is the easy part. The operating agreement is where most businesses run into problems, and a poorly drafted or missing operating agreement can create serious disputes between owners, leave you personally exposed, or fail to protect you in the situations that actually matter. An attorney makes sure the legal foundation of your business is solid from the start.
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An operating agreement is the governing document for your LLC it defines how the business is owned, how decisions are made, how profits and losses are divided, what happens when an owner wants to leave, and what happens if an owner dies or becomes incapacitated. Oklahoma doesn't require LLCs to have one, but operating without one means state default rules govern those questions rules that may not reflect what you and your co-owners actually want.
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A buy-sell agreement is a contract between business co-owners that sets the rules for what happens to an owner's interest if they die, become disabled, want to sell, go through a divorce, or face bankruptcy. Without one, a deceased owner's shares could end up in the hands of their spouse or heirs, who may have no interest in or ability to run the business. Any business with more than one owner should have a buy-sell agreement.
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Registration isn't required to use a trademark, but it is required to have full legal protection. Without federal registration, your rights are limited to the geographic area where you're actively using the mark. With registration, you have nationwide protection, the legal presumption that you own the mark, and the tools to stop infringers across the country. If your brand has value, registration protects it.
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A trademark protects brand identifiers like names, logos, slogans, and other marks that identify the source of goods or services. A copyright protects original creative works like written content, designs, photographs, software, music, and similar creations. The two cover different things and both may be relevant to your business depending on what you create and what brand identity you've built.
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For most business owners, the two are deeply intertwined, and that's exactly the problem. Your business interest is likely one of your largest personal assets, but it may not be addressed in your personal estate plan. If something happens to you, who controls your business interest? Who can make decisions? What happens to your co-owners? A complete plan addresses both sides and makes sure they work together.
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Business succession planning is the process of deciding and documenting how ownership and management of your business will transition whether to a family member, a co-owner, a key employee, or an outside buyer and putting the legal structures in place to make that transition happen smoothly. Without a succession plan, the future of the business is uncertain, and that uncertainty reduces its value and increases the risk to everyone involved.
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Yes. We help mission-driven founders form nonprofit organizations and navigate the 501(c)(3) application process with the IRS. This includes drafting articles of incorporation, bylaws, and conflict of interest policies, as well as preparing the Form 1023 or 1023-EZ application for tax-exempt status. We've helped clients including churches and community organizations get their governing documents right and their nonprofit structure properly established.