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Osha Bergman Watanabe & Burton: The Houston IP Firm Built Around Oil and Gas Patents

Origin and Background

Osha Bergman Watanabe & Burton LLP (OBWB) is headquartered at 1100 Louisiana Street, Suite 4900, Houston, TX 77002, confirmed through the firm’s own site and multiple legal directories; the firm’s own site states it moved to this address from a prior Houston location. Founded in 1998 as Osha Liang LLP before rebranding to its current name in October 2020, the firm has grown to roughly 20 lawyers with additional offices in Austin, Boulder, Paris, Dubai, Hangzhou, Beijing, and Tokyo. Managing Partner Jeffrey S. Bergman has been individually recognized by Best Lawyers in America in Litigation-Patent and Patent Law since 2024. Global Chair Jonathan P. Osha has been recognized by Best Lawyers since 2014, and the IAM Patent 1000 guide credits him with drawing on “more than three decades of experience” in patent work.

Practice Concentration

OBWB is a full-service intellectual property firm covering patent and trademark procurement, portfolio management, licensing, acquisition due diligence, opinions of counsel, and IP litigation. Given its Houston headquarters, the firm states that oil and gas is “front and foremost” in its practice, representing clients across all three sectors of the industry alongside alternative-energy IP work covering renewable and nuclear technologies. The firm operates what it calls a Patent Agent Program, designed to build technical depth among its professionals across chemistry, physics, and engineering disciplines. See this Houston Intellectual Property directory for how this energy-sector-focused IP firm compares to other Harris County practices.

Notable Work / Track Record

OBWB states it is recognized as one of the top 50 IP firms in the nation based on the number of patents issued, and the Houston Business Journal ranked it #6 on its 2021 list of the area’s largest IP law firms. As is typical for a patent prosecution and portfolio-management practice, the firm does not publish a table of litigated case verdicts; its most concrete performance metric is patent-issuance volume rather than trial outcomes. Docket Alarm separately ranked the firm #1 nationally by “Highest Ratio of Female Attorneys Working on Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Patent Cases” in 2017.

Client Voice

Awesome Attorneys did not identify a public consumer-review presence for OBWB, consistent with a patent and IP firm serving corporate and institutional clients rather than individual consumers. The IAM Patent 1000 guide, a peer- and client-interview-based ranking rather than a self-submitted award, describes the firm as “a discerning choice for high-level strategic prosecution and litigation work,” specifically praising Jeffrey Bergman’s “profound knowledge of patent law and complex problem-solving capabilities” and Carlyn Burton’s straightforward approach to chemistry-heavy matters.

Beyond the Courtroom

OBWB has hosted American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) committee meetings at its Houston office and sponsors the Houston Intellectual Property Law Association’s (HIPLA) annual dinner honoring the federal judiciary, according to the firm’s own social media. The firm also participates in IP education outreach, including an “Intro to IP” session for a Johns Hopkins University incubator program. Awesome Attorneys did not identify a formalized pro bono case count documented for the firm.

Recognition for This Houston Intellectual Property Firm

OBWB has been named a Recommended IP Law Firm in the IAM Patent 1000 guide continuously since 2017. Individually, Jonathan Osha has been named to Best Lawyers in America since 2014, Jeffrey Bergman since 2024, and Carlyn Burton since 2021, all in patent-specific categories. H Texas Magazine has named the firm’s attorneys among its “Top Lawyers” across multiple years since 2008. Patent attorneys are not eligible for Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification in the same way as other practice areas, since patent practice is governed by USPTO registration rather than state board certification; Awesome Attorneys notes this distinction rather than applying “specialist” language based on a certification that does not exist for this specialty.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Patent prosecution and litigation are governed almost entirely by federal law — the Patent Act and USPTO regulations — rather than Texas state statutes, meaning a patent attorney’s authority to practice comes from federal registration with the USPTO, not a Texas law license alone. Trademark and trade secret matters, also within OBWB’s stated practice, blend federal law (the Lanham Act, the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act) with the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act, codified in Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code Chapter 134A. Houston’s concentration of energy-industry patent work also frequently intersects with the U.S. International Trade Commission’s Section 337 process for imported goods. None of this is legal advice; a specific patent, trademark, or trade secret matter should be evaluated by a licensed and USPTO-registered attorney based on the actual facts involved.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

OBWB’s clearest differentiator is genuine sector depth: a Houston-headquartered IP firm built specifically around the technical demands of oil and gas and alternative energy patent work, backed by a Patent Agent Program designed to keep its technical bench current, and ranked among the top 50 U.S. firms by patent volume. The honest trade-off is that this is a patent-prosecution-and-portfolio firm serving corporate and institutional clients rather than a consumer-facing trademark or copyright practice, and Awesome Attorneys did not identify the kind of individual consumer reviews that would help a solo inventor or small business gauge day-to-day responsiveness. For an energy-sector company or technical innovator seeking Houston patent counsel with genuine subject-matter depth, OBWB’s specialization and peer-review recognition are a reasonable basis for a shortlist.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from OBWB’s official website (obwb.com), including its Houston location page, People directory, and Awards & Recognition page, the firm’s Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers firm profiles, U.S. News’ law firm directory, and a 2020 PRNewswire release on the firm’s operations.

Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Osha Bergman Watanabe & Burton LLP prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placement products to attorneys and firms, including this one, but sponsorship has no bearing on the editorial content, inclusion, or findings of this profile.