IP COUNSEL - AI, Open Source and IP Transactions

Block is one company built from many blocks, all united by the same purpose of economic empowerment. The blocks that form our foundational teams — People, Finance, Counsel, Hardware, Information Security, Platform Infrastructure Engineering, and more — provide support and guidance at the corporate level. They work across business groups and around the globe, spanning time zones and disciplines to develop inclusive People policies, forecast finances, give legal counsel, safeguard systems, nurture new initiatives, and more. Every challenge creates possibilities, and we need different perspectives to see them all. Bring yours to Block.

The Role

Block is looking for an attorney with a passion for all things AI, open source and IP transactions to join our legal organization. This position will have responsibility to counsel engineers and business leaders on a wide array of AI, open source, and other technology issues.

You will be under the direction of the General Counsel:

• Be a thought partner on various AI topics, including our open source AI agent codename goose, to help us further our AI initiatives from an IP perspective.
• Work closely on open source software, open source AI, software licensing, SBOM management, and compliance with open source licenses.
• Collaborate with Block’s OSPO to facilitate Block’s engagement with the open source community, develop efficient software tooling and processes to enable compliant open source use at scale, including AI, and maintain open source policies.
• Possess deep substantive knowledge of enterprise agreements, and other software licensing and distribution, strategic partnerships, and intellectual property (patent, trade secret, copyright) agreements, including AI commercial agreements.
• Work closely with experts from other legal teams, including product, patent, copyright, privacy, regulatory, to advise on (and occasionally draft and negotiate) relevant IP terms in development, deployment, and use of AI, including Generative AI, and other emerging technologies.
• Collaborate with the patent team on the patent strategy for AI and open source-related initiatives.
• Develop a deep knowledge of Block’s existing and planned products, business activities, and R&D in the context of IP risks as they relate to competitor activities, industry trends, best practices, and laws and regulations.
• Work cross-functionally with technical and commercial teams to identify patent opportunities, mitigate potential AI, patent and open source-related risks, educate on IP matters, and recommend solutions/best practices.
• Support cross-functional efforts to build and iterate on internal AI and open source policies and AI governance framework by monitoring and complying with enacted laws and harmonizing our practices with industry best practices, standards, and global models.

You Have:

• JD degree and membership in at least one state bar.
• Undergraduate degree in a technical field, preferably in computer science, electrical engineering, software engineering, or related fields.
• 8 years of experience counseling on intellectual property and contract issues specific to open source, with strong knowledge of open source licenses.
• Critical understanding of various AI concepts, opportunities and the related intellectual property legal issues.
• Strong fluency in communicating legal concepts, issues and risks clearly and effectively.
• Proven ability to distill complex issues to understandable concepts.
• Highly motivated and self-driven with the ability to quickly learn new legal areas and skills.
• Experience with patent litigation, and in other IP disciplines such as copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets would be desirable.
• Sound judgment and capable of managing multiple projects concurrently.
• Comfortable with distributed work environments, collaborating across time zones, different communities, groups, and cultures.

We’re working to build a more inclusive economy where our customers have equal access to opportunity, and we strive to live by these same values in building our workplace. Block is a proud equal opportunity employer. We work hard to evaluate all employees and job applicants consistently, based solely on the core competencies required of the role at hand, and without regard to any legally protected class. We believe in being fair, and are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including providing reasonable accommodations to disabled applicants throughout the recruitment process. We encourage applicants to share any needed accommodations with their recruiter, who will treat these requests as confidentially as possible. Want to learn more about what we’re doing to build an inclusive workplace?