Ian Ballon is an intellectual property and Internet litigator who represents clients in copyright, DMCA, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity, privacy, security, software, database and Internet disputes and in the defense of data privacy, behavioral advertising and other Internet-related class action suits.
Mr. Ballon, who splits his time between the firm's Silicon Valley and LA offices, is the author of the four-volume legal treatise, E-Commerce and Internet Law: Treatise With Forms 2d Edition, Thomson West 2012 Cum. Supp. and the earlier first edition, which has been cited in state and federal court opinions. He is also the author of The Complete CAN-SPAM Act Handbook (West 2008) and The Complete State Security Breach Notification Compliance Handbook (West 2009). In addition, Mr. Ballon serves as Executive Director of Stanford University Law School's Center for E-Commerce and previously served as an Adviser to the American Law Institute's Intellectual Property: Principles Governing Jurisdiction, Choice of Law, and Judgments in Transactional Disputes (ALI Principles of the Law 2007).
Mr. Ballon was named as the Lawyer of the Year for information technology law in the 2013 edition of The Best Lawyers in America and was recognized as the 2012 New Media Lawyer of the Year by the Century City Bar Association. In 2010, he was the recipient of the California State Bar Intellectual Property Law section's Vanguard Award for outstanding legal professionals who are spearheading new developments in the world of intellectual property. He has also been named one of the top 100 lawyers in California and one of the Top 75 intellectual property litigators in California by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal. Mr. Ballon previously has been recognized as one of the top new media lawyers in the United States by CyberEsq. magazine, one of the 100 most influential lawyers in California by California Law Business, one of the top 100 lawyers in L.A. by the Los Angeles Business Journal, one of the top 50 IP Litigators in California and one of the top 25 copyright, trademark and patent lawyers in California by The Daily Journal. He is listed in Legal 500 U.S., The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of intellectual property and information technology and Chambers and Partners USA Guide in the areas of privacy and data security as well as IT and outsourcing.
In 2009, Mr. Ballon also was recognized by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal for obtaining the third largest plaintiff's verdict in California in 2008 in MySpace, Inc. v. Wallace (over $230,000,000), which was one of a number of cases in which he and his team created new law applying the CAN-SPAM Act to social networks, construing California's anti-phishing statute and enforcing provisions in Internet Terms of Use agreements.
Mr. Ballon is admitted to practice in California, the District of Columbia and Maryland and before the U.S. Supreme Court and has been elected to membership in the American Law Institute. He also holds a C.I.P.P. certification from the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
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