Ian C. Ballon

Practice Details

• Firm Information
  Position

  Litigation Shareholder; Co-Chair, Global Intellectual Property & Technology Practice Group

  Firm Name

  Greenberg Traurig, LLP
• Representative Cases & Transactions
  Cases

  Experience: Representative Matters: 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
  newspaper publishers over the digitization of works in electronic databases
  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
  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
  contributory patent infringement).
  Lead counsel to Yahoo, eNom
  Neustar in obtaining dismissal with prejudice before the trial court
  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
  privacy claims arising out of the publication
  distribution of,
  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
  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
  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
  behavioral advertising class action suit involving alleged use of flash cookies
  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
  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
  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!
  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!
  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
  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
  federal
  state anti-spamming
  breach of TOU claims.
  Lead counsel to eBay, Inc. in copyright infringement, DMCA, Lanham Act
  CDA cases in various federal
  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
  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
  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
  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
  Vivendi Universal Entertainment LLLP (
  briefly Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
  Columbia Tri-Star Film Distributors Int'l, Inc.) in the defense
  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
  pseudonymous Internet tortfeasors
  infringers, phishing, Internet
  computer privacy rights, the First Amendment
  deleted e-mail communications
  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
  spamming)
  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
  trade secret cases,
  in the defense of copyright
  internet-related putative class action suits.
• Additional Links
  http://www.gtlaw.com/People/Ian-C-Ballon