Profile
Ian Ballon is an intellectual property and internet litigator who is the Co-Chair of Greenberg Traurig LLP’s Global Intellectual Property & Technology Practice Group. He represents clients in copyright, DMCA, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity, privacy, security, software, database and Internet- and mobile-related disputes and in the defense of data privacy, cybersecurity breach, adtech and behavioral advertising, TCPA and other Internet-related class action suits. Please click here to view a list of some of his recent cases.
Mr. Ballon, who splits his time between the firm's Silicon Valley, L.A., and D.C. offices, is the author of the five-volume legal treatise, E-Commerce and Internet Law: Treatise With Forms 2d Edition (West 2008 & 2022 Cum. Supp., www.ianballon.net) and the earlier first edition, which has been cited in state and federal court opinions. In addition, he serves as the Executive Director of Stanford University Law School’s Center for the Digital Economy. He also chairs PLI's annual Advanced Defending Data Privacy, Cybersecurity Breach and TCPA Class Action Litigation conference. Mr. Ballon previously served as an advisor to ALI’s Intellectual Property: Principles Governing Jurisdiction, Choice of Law, and Judgments in Transactional Disputes (ALI Principles of the Law 2007) and was a member of the consultative group for the Data Privacy Principles of Law project (ALI Principles of the Law Data Privacy, 2020).
Mr. Ballon was named the Lawyer of the Year for Information Technology Law in the 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2016, and 2013 editions of Best Lawyers in America and was recognized as the 2012 New Media Lawyer of the Year by the Century City Bar Association. In 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018 he was recognized as one of the Top 1,000 trademark attorneys in the world for his litigation practice by World Trademark Review. In addition, in 2019 he was named one of the Top 20 Cybersecurity lawyers in California and in 2018 one of the Top Cybersecurity/Artificial Intelligence lawyers in California by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal. He received the “Trailblazer” Award, Intellectual Property, 2017 from The National Law Journal and he has been recognized as a “Groundbreaker” in The Recorder’s 2017 Litigation Departments of the Year Awards for winning a series of TCPA cases. In addition, he was the recipient of the California State Bar Intellectual Property Law section's Vanguard Award for significant contributions to the development of intellectual property law. He is listed in Legal 500 U.S., The Best Lawyers in America (in the areas of information technology and intellectual property) and Chambers and Partners USA Guide in the areas of privacy and data security and information technology.
He has been recognized as one of the Top 75 intellectual property litigators in California by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal in every year that the list has been published (2009 through 2022). He was also listed in Variety’s “Legal Impact Report: 50 Game-Changing Attorneys” (2012), was recognized as one of the Top 100 lawyers in California by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal L.A., as one of the Top 100 lawyers in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal and has appeared on both the Northern California and Southern California Super Lawyers lists.
Mr. Ballon is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in California, the District of Columbia, and Maryland, federal court in Colorado, and before the U.S. Supreme Court and multiple U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal.
He has also been elected to membership in the American Law Institute and holds the CIPP/US certification from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).
Capabilities
Experience
- Lead counsel to The McClatchy Company (formerly to Knight-Ridder, before its acquisition by The McClatchy Company) in Reed-Elsivier, Inc. v. Muchnick, 559 U.S. 154 (2010). The case involved putative copyright class action suits brought by freelance authors against database companies and newspaper publishers over the digitization of works in electronic databases and ended in 2019.
- Lead counsel for two digital music services in obtaining dismissal of pre-1972 sound recordings California copyright claims brought by a putative class in Ponderosa Twins Plus One v. iHeart Media, Inc., Case No. 3:16-cv-5648-VC, 2020 WL 3481737 (N.D. Cal. June 26, 2020).
- Lead counsel in obtaining summary judgment for Yahoo and excluding plaintiff's four expert reports in Dominguez v. Yahoo, Inc., 894 F.3d 116, 121 (3d Cir. 2018).
- Successfully defended Blazer v. eBay, Inc., Case No. 1:15-CV-01059-KOB, 2017 WL 1047572 (N.D. Ala. Mar. 20, 2017) (granting summary judgment for eBay on claims of direct and contributory patent infringement).
- Lead counsel to Yahoo, eNom and Neustar in obtaining dismissal with prejudice before the trial court and prevailing on appeal to the Third Circuit in Obado v. Magedson, 612 F. App'x 90 (3d Cir. 2015), aff'g, Civil No. 13-2382 (JAP), 2014 WL 3778261 (D.N.J. July 31, 2014) (granting judgment under 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1) on multiple tort and privacy claims arising out of the publication and distribution of, and links to, various blog posts).
- Successfully defended LG in In re Carrier IQ, Inc. Consumer Privacy Litigation, 856 F. Supp. 2d 1332 (N.D. Cal. 2015) (granting in part defendants' motion to dismiss ECPA and other claims).
- Lead counsel in defeating class certification in Sherman v. Yahoo! Inc., No. 13cv0041–GPC–WVG, 2015 WL 5604400 (S.D. Cal. Sept. 23, 2015).
- Represented the prevailing defendant in Thomas v. Taco Bell Corp., 582 F. App'x. 678 (9th Cir. 2014), the appeal of a TCPA case alleging both direct and vicarious liability for the transmission of text messages.
- Lead counsel to the prevailing defendant in Obodai v. Cracked Entertainment Inc., 522 Fed. App’x 41 (2d Cir. 2013) (affirming summary judgment based on the defendant’s entitlement to the DMCA safe harbor for material stored at the direction of a user).
- Represented eNom, Inc. in submitting an amicus brief in support of the prevailing party in PetroliamNasional Berhad v. GoDaddy.com, Inc., 787 F.3d 546 (9th Cir. 2013) (holding that the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act does not allow claims for contributory liability).
- Successfully represented defendants in TCPA putative class action suits brought over confirmatory text messages, including Ibey v. Taco Bell Corp., 2012 WL 2401972 (S.D. Cal. 2012), appeal dismissed, No. 12-56482 (9th Cir. 2012).
- Lead counsel in successfully representing the advertiser defendants in Bose v. interclick, Inc., 2011 WL 4343517 (S.D.N.Y. 2011) in obtaining dismissal with prejudice of a putative privacy and behavioral advertising class action suit involving alleged use of flash cookies and browser sniffing.
- Lead counsel for eBay, Inc. in Inman v. Technicolor USA, Inc., 2011 WL 5829024 (W.D. Pa. 2011) in obtaining judgment in a toxic tort and product liability case brought in the Western District of Pennsylvania based on federal preemption under the Communications Decency Act (CDA).
- Lead counsel in successfully defending an Internet network in a data privacy putative class action suit in 2011 in enforcing a venue selection clause in an Internet Terms of Use agreement and then obtaining a voluntary dismissal after the case was transferred from California to New York.
- Lead counsel in obtaining judgment for Yahoo! in Brendan N. Fleming, LLC v. Duncan, Case No. 2010CV0966 (Columbia Cty., Ga. Sup. Ct. 2010), a defamation case brought in state court in Georgia, based on federal preemption under the CDA.
- Represented Yahoo! and Microsoft in defense of a copyright infringement suit involving digital music which settled on confidential terms after two favorable rulings: MCS Music America Inc. v. Yahoo! Inc., 2010 WL 500430 (M.D. Tenn. 2010) (limiting the number of copyrighted works at issue); MCS Music America Inc. v. Yahoo! Inc., 2009 WL 4348593 (M.D. Tenn. 2009) (dismissing MCS America's copyright infringement claims against Yahoo! and Microsoft with prejudice).
- Represented Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. in a copyright infringement suit involving user generated content.
- Represented eNom, Inc., the world's largest domain name wholesaler, as lead counsel in successfully defending claims arising out of the transfer of domain names in various federal courts and before the Fifth Circuit.
- Lead counsel in obtaining a $6 million judgment for an Internet company following a one week arbitration trial in a case involving Lanham Act and federal and state anti-spamming and breach of TOU claims.
- Lead counsel to eBay, Inc. in copyright infringement, DMCA, Lanham Act and CDA cases in various federal and state courts.
- Lead counsel to MySpace, Inc. in MySpace, Inc. v. Wallace, 498 F. Supp. 2d 1293 (C.D. Cal. 2007) (enjoining a defendant under the CAN-SPAM Act and resulting in 2008 in a judgment of over $230,000,000).
- Lead Counsel to MySpace, Inc. in MySpace, Inc. v. TheGlobe.com, Inc., 2007 WL 1686966 (C.D. Cal. 2007) (granting summary judgment under the CAN-SPAM Act, California's anti-spamming statute and for breach of MySpace's Terms of Use, including its $50 per email liquidated damages clause). The case settled on confidential terms in 2007.
- Lead Counsel to clients in sponsored link cases brought under the Lanham Act in federal courts in California and Virginia.
- Lead counsel to the prevailing plaintiff in Garden of Life, Inc. v. Letzer, 318 F. Supp. 2d 946 (C.D. Cal. 2004), one of the only cases where domain names were transferred to a plaintiff on motion for preliminary injunction, rather than following trial or summary judgment.
- Lead IP Trial Counsel to Hewlett Packard Co. in com, Inc. v. Hewlett Packard Co., a case brought in the Central District of California in which the plaintiff sought $100 million for the alleged copyright infringement of the source code for a web-based business, among other claims. The case eventually settled.
- Lead Counsel to the prevailing party in MCSi, Inc. v. Woods, 290 F. Supp. 2d 1030 (N.D. Cal. 2003), which for many years was the only reported decision in California in which a company prevailed in the defense of an anti-SLAPP motion brought by a DOE defendant in a case involving anonymous Internet misconduct.
- Represented Fox Group and Vivendi Universal Entertainment LLLP (and briefly Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. and Columbia Tri-Star Film Distributors Int'l, Inc.) in the defense and settlement of Not the Enemy Media v. Universal Studios Consumer Products, Inc. in federal court in San Francisco.
- Amicus counsel to a group of organizations of copyright owners in MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 380 F.3d 1154 (9th Cir. 2004), vacated, 545 U.S. 913 (2005).
- Litigated disputes involving anonymous and pseudonymous Internet tortfeasors and infringers, phishing, Internet and computer privacy rights, the First Amendment and deleted e-mail communications and other electronic evidence.
- Represented GTE Service Corp. (now Verizon) in defeating a nationwide injunction in a copyright infringement suit alleging infringement of hundreds of alleged works. The case settled on confidential terms.
- Lead Counsel in litigating novel, Internet-related claims in Visto Corp. v. Benchmark Print Supply (pernicious spoofing and spamming) and San Jose Mercury News, Inc. v. Royal (wrongful diversion of Internet traffic).
- Lead Counsel for GTE Government Systems in GTE Government Systems v. Patrick (Santa Clara County Superior Court, 1998) in obtaining one of the only temporary restraining orders ever entered in California based on the inevitable disclosure doctrine.
- Represented clients in numerous computer software copyright and trade secret cases, and in the defense of copyright and internet-related putative class action suits.
Recognition & Leadership
- Named, Daily Journal, one of the Top Intellectual Property Lawyers, 2022-2024
- Named, Daily Journal, one of the "75 Top IP Litigators in California," 2009-2020
- Named, Daily Journal, one of the Top Cyber/Artificial Intelligence Lawyers in California, 2018-2019
- Listed, World Trademark Review, "WTR 1000," 2018-2024
- Ranked in California, Enforcement and Litigation, 2018-2024
- Listed, Northern California Super Lawyers, 2004-2024
- Listed, Managing IP Magazine's World IP Handbook and Survey, "IP Stars," 2013-2024
- Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Information Technology Law; Technology Law, 2001-2025
- Listed, "Lawyer of the Year" in Information Technology Law, Los Angeles, 2013, 2016, 2020, 2022, 2024
- Listed, "Lawyer of the Year" in Technology Law, San Jose, 2023
- Listed, "Lawyer of the Year" in Technology Law, Los Angeles, 2018, 2020
- Listed, "Lawyer of the Year" in Information Technology Law, San Jose, 2019
- Listed, Los Angeles' Best Lawyers, 2012
- Listed, Litigation - Intellectual Property, 2011-2025
- Listed Privacy and Data Security Law, 2021-2025
- Listed, Trade Secrets Law, 2024-2025
- Listed, Northern California's Best Lawyers, Information Technology Law, Intellectual Property Law, Privacy and Data Security Law, Technology Law, 2001-2021
- Listed, The Legal 500 United States, 2007-2019, 2023-2024
- Listed, Thomson Reuters, "Stand-Out Lawyers," 2022-2024
- Listed, Lawdragon 500, "Leading Lawyers in America," 2018-2019, 2022
- Honoree, The National Law Journal, "Trailblazer" Award, Intellectual Property, 2017
- Recipient, Lexology's "Client Choice" Award, IT & Internet: California, 2017
- Listed, Chambers USA Guide, 2009-2016, 2022-2024
- Listed, Chambers Global, Privacy & Data Security (USA), 2008-2016
- Listed, The International Who's Who of Internet & eCommerce Lawyers, 2008-2014
- Recipient, “Groundbreaker” Award, The Recorder’s 2017 Law Departments of the Year Awards, San Francisco
- Recognized, Los Angeles Business Journal, "Most Influential Lawyers: Digital Media and E-Commerce Law," 2014
- Listed, Variety, "Legal Impact Report: 50 Game-Changing Attorneys," 2012
- Recipient, "New Media Lawyer of the Year" Award, Century City Bar Association, 2012
- Recognized, Los Angeles Business Journal, "Who's Who in L.A. Law: Angelenos to Know in Intellectual Property Law," 2012
- Recipient, "Vanguard" Award, State Bar of California Intellectual Property Law Section, 2010
- Listed, IAM 250 - The World's Leading IP Strategists, 2009-2010
- Recommended, PLC Which Lawyer?, 2009 Yearbook
- Listed, Los Angeles Daily Journal, list of Top Verdicts for obtaining the third largest plaintiff's verdict in California, 2008
- Named, Daily Journal, one of the 50 Top IP Litigators in California, 2008
- Named, Daily Journal, one of the Top 100 Lawyers In California, 2008
- Listed, Los Angeles Magazine, Southern California Super Lawyer, 2007-2008
- Named, Technology, Media and Telecommunications Expert Guide, one of the world's leading lawyers, 2005-2006
- Named, Daily Journal, one of the top 25 copyright, trademark and patent lawyers in California, 2003
- Named, California Law Business, one of the 100 most influential lawyers in California, 2001
- Listed, Daily Journal's magazine, one of 16 top new-media lawyers in the United States, 2001
- Named, California Law Business, one of the top 20 California Lawyers under the age of 40, 1999
- Rated, AV Preeminent® 5.0 out of 5.0
- Advisory Board, International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), Privacy Bar, 2019 to present
- Advisory Board, Stanford University Law School's Program in Law, Science and Technology, 2007 to present
- Executive Director, Stanford University Law School’s Center for the Digital Economy, 2002 to present
- Chair, PLI’s Annual Advanced Defending Data Privacy and Security Breach Class Action Litigation Conference, 2017 to present
- Member, American Bar Association Cybersecurity Legal Task Force, 2017 to 2020
- Fellow, The American Bar Foundation
- Contributor, IAPP’s CCPA Online Training Module 2: CCPA Scope: Am I affected and what should I do?
- Leadership Council Member, RAND Institute for Social Justice, 2010 to 2014
- Consultative Member, American Law Institute Principles of the Law, Data Privacy Project, 2016 to the present
- Advisor, American Law Institute International Jurisdiction Project, 2002 to 2007
- Council Member (and previously Computer and E-Commerce Division Co-Chair), American Bar Association Section of Science and Technology, 2003 to 2005
- Member and contributing author, American Bar Association Cyberspace Jurisdiction Project. The committee's "Report on Global Jurisdictional Issues Created By Information Technology Networks" and proposals for new international standards were published in London, England in July 2000
- Co-Chair, Internet Subcommittee, ABA Section of Litigation, Intellectual Property Litigation Committee, 1997 to 2000
- Programs Chair, ABA Section of Litigation, Computer and Online Litigation Committee, 1995 to 2001
- Member, GRAMMY® Foundation's Entertainment Law Initiative Advisory Committee, 2005 to 2010
- Editorial Board, The Cyberspace Lawyer, The Journal of Internet Law, E-Commerce Law Report and The Privacy and Information Law Report
- Member, American Bar Association
- Elected to membership in the American Law Institute
- Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US), International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)
Credentials
- LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center
-
J.D., The George Washington University Law School, 1986
- Articles Editor (1985-1986) and Member (1984-1985), The George Washington Journal of International Law and Economics
- B.A., Economics and Political Science, magna cum laude, Tufts University, 1983
- California
- District of Columbia
- Maryland
- Supreme Court of the United States
- U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth and Federal Circuits
- U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Central and Eastern Districts of California
- U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado