JANUARY 7, 2025 – Batur Oktay, a renowned legal innovator who spent nearly two decades at Starbucks and oversaw the company's global intellectual property program, has joined Davis Wright Tremaine LLP as a partner in Seattle.
Oktay brings to DWT more than 25 years of experience advising C-suite executives, technology leaders, and boards of directors on strategy, complex commercial and IP matters, global product launches, high-stakes litigation, and key partnerships. A veteran of both unicorn startups and Fortune 500 companies, Oktay is known for leveraging business acumen to help drive success.
"With Batur's arrival, our best-in-class IP practice is moving to a new level," said Alexandra Nicholson, national chair of DWT's media, entertainment, patent, trademark, and advertising group. "We're not only adding a practitioner with extraordinary legal skills but a one-of-a-kind client counselor who aligns IP strategy with business goals. Batur will significantly strengthen our established bi-coastal trademark and patent teams, which are already recognized as key partners to many of the world's most innovative companies. All of us at DWT are thrilled to welcome him."
As managing director and corporate counsel at Starbucks, Oktay set global innovation and brand strategy for one of the world's most recognized companies during a period of hypergrowth. He oversaw the Starbucks trademark program (including strategy, clearance, prosecution, enforcement, and litigation), growing the portfolio to 24,000 trademarks, and launched the Starbucks patent program, adding 630+ patents that supported critical innovation in food and beverage equipment and technology. He was also a key adviser and conducted due diligence for landmark company transactions, including the largest strategic partnership in Starbucks history—a $7 billion global marketing deal with Nestle.
"I am grateful and excited to launch the next stage of my career in collaboration with DWT's remarkable team of lawyers and extraordinary roster of clients," said Oktay. "DWT attorneys have a proven record of entrepreneurial drive that clearly sets them apart in the industry. The firm's exceptional strength in areas that are central to my interests—food and beverage, advertising/marketing, and technology, to name just a few—as well as its highly distinguished trademark and patent teams, make this an ideal platform for my return to private practice."
Oktay began his career as an associate at Foster Garvey. He later went in-house as senior corporate counsel at Adobe, where he managed the company's copyright and trademark portfolios worldwide and ran global anti-piracy efforts and IP litigation. He was at Starbucks from 2002 through 2021 and most recently served as VP, general counsel, and corporate secretary at Rad Power Bikes, a Seattle-based, VC-backed, pioneer in the e-bike industry.
"Batur is a deeply networked thought leader, in the Seattle business community and well beyond," said Wendy Kearns, DWT's Seattle partner-in-charge. "His arrival will further solidify our longstanding preeminence in the Seattle market and provide extremely high-value expertise to clients here and across the country."
Oktay's arrival advances multiple components of DWT's strategic plan and closely follows the addition of two other significant lateral partners this past year: Kristi Wolff, a prominent advertising and consumer protection attorney, and Alexander Hadjis, a highly experienced patent trial attorney and litigator, who both joined the firm in Washington, D.C., and are helping expand DWT's consumer products and services work and growing its tech litigation.
"This firm has a strong game plan for growth and I look forward to being part of it," said Oktay. "I'm eager to team up with a long list of market-leading DWT partners serving multiple industries."
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is an AmLaw 100 law firm with more than 600 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. Learn more at www.dwt.com.