Ian C. Ballon

Silicon Valley & Los Angeles

Ian Ballon has been at the forefront of innovations for more than 30 years -- since he first addressed the ABA Annual Convention on Internet Law in 1995 and was persuaded to write what has since become the leading internet law treatise.

Ballon began his career in Washington, D.C. in 1986, concentrating on countervailing duties, anti-dumping and private international law matters. A move to Silicon Valley in 1989 shifted his focus toward intellectual property -- specifically, computer and internet law, which he identified as the field with the most potential. That instinct proved prescient.

His career-defining case came early and lasted nearly two decades. In In re: Literary Works in Electronic Databases Copyright Litigation, Ballon served as lead counsel to Knight Ridder through a 19-year odyssey that began with putative class action suits filed in New York, San Francisco, and Delaware in 2000. The cases were consolidated by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in the Southern District of New York, stayed pending the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Tasini v. New York Times, and eventually returned to the Supreme Court as Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick, 559 U.S. 154 (2010). The litigation ran until 2019. "The lawsuit created a framework to provide compensation to freelance authors for contributions to newspapers, magazines and other collective works," Ballon said.

He also contributed to the team that developed the prevailing argument in Oracle v. Google, which established new law on copyright fair use.

His recent work reflects the range of litigation that has come to define the internet law landscape. Ballon serves as lead counsel for PhillyWine, LLC -- the oldest wine school in Philadelphia and the only WSET-certified wine school in the area -- in a trademark and fraud lawsuit against a competitor in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The case involves allegations of fraudulent procurement of a federal trademark registration and deceptive online conduct designed to generate consumer confusion.

Ballon's representation of AJ Press, publisher of Punchbowl News, produced two rulings in 2024 that capped years of litigation. After securing dismissal of an initial Virginia filing -- with the court characterizing it as "clearly an attempt at forum-shopping" -- and then winning a Ninth Circuit ruling on First Amendment grounds, Ballon's team ultimately prevailed on summary judgment based on no likelihood of confusion, an outcome the district court granted in August 2024. Punchbowl, Inc. v. AJ Press, Inc., 2024 WL 4005220 (C.D. Cal., filed Aug. 24, 2024). The plaintiff dismissed its appeal in 2025.

"Knowing your judge, and anticipating how opposing counsel will litigate a case, are often critical to winning," Ballon said. "It is important to understand a client's objectives before the first court paper is filed."