Ian C. Ballon

Greenberg Traurig LLP

East Palo Alto, Los Angeles

Copyright, trademark, patent litigation

The year was 1995. Ballon was at an annual American Bar Association event, where he gave an address on internet law.

It was after that engagement he was talked into writing what became one of the leading legal texts on internet law -- E-Commerce and Internet Law: Treatise with Forms.

"It came out as a three-volume set in 2000 and it's currently a five-volume set," Ballon said.

He also penned, "The Complete State Data Security Breach Handbook."

Despite the countless innovations in internet speed and technology, internet law hasn't changed much.

"It's still a translation issue," Ballon said. "Translating your client's situation for a judge, for a jury and making it seem sympathetic ... translating business models, translating the way that people communicate."

Since that initial speech, he's focused on IP litigation, including the defense of secondary copyright, trademark and patent suits brought against his clients.

One of his key victories was in 2017 after eBay was sued for allegedly infringing on carpenter bee traps that were listed on the auction website.

The judge found eBay neither sold nor offered to sell products within the meaning of the Patent Act and does not induce infringement merely because an eBay user offered the product for sale on the website. Blazer v. eBay, 15-CV01059 (N.D. Ala., filed June 24, 2015).

"It was a good decision and an important decision," Ballon said. "I think it really underscores the platforms are not the enemy of a rights owner, that legitimate platforms have an array of remedies available for rights owners. They don't encourage infringement."

Some of his other high-profile clients include Verizon Communications Inc., Uproxx and Chegg Inc.

Ballon is also working with many clients on ways to mitigate impacts of the new California Consumer Privacy Act, which took effect on Jan. 1.

Looking to the future, Ballon said he sees more issues needing to be addressed surfacing around artificial intelligence and tensions between IP and privacy laws.

But the way he looks at it, infringement issues and the like have dated far back before his time.

"Copyright law, for example, has always been pushed by technology," Ballon said. "If you go back 120 years, one of the big issues was the player piano."

-- Arin Mikailian