Ronald L. Johnston

Ronald has represented clients in leading cases in the information technology and entertainment industries both at the trial and appellate levels. He also provides strategic counseling to computer, software, entertainment, and internet businesses on a broad range of intellectual property, contractual, and competitive issues. The substantive areas of his practice include copyright, patent, trade secret, trademark, right of publicity, antitrust, unfair competition, contract, and corporate law.

He was the founder and chairperson of the University of Southern California's Computer & Internet Law Institute (1979-2003). He also co-founded The Computer & Internet Lawyer (Aspen Publications, 1984-present), the leading journal on computer and online commerce law, and serves as its Editor-in-Chief. Ronald has been a frequent chairperson and speaker at national institutes in the areas of trial practice, intellectual property, and technology law. He also has been a frequent author on these subjects and serves on several editorial boards.

Ronald graduated Order of the Coif from the University of Southern California School of Law in 1973, where he served as a Note and Article Editor for the University of Southern California Law Review.

• Successfully argued Lockheed Martin Corp. v. Network Solutions Inc., 194 F. 3rd 980 (9th Cir., 1999), the first appellate opinion, and now landmark decision, determining critically important legal standards for secondary liability law on the Internet.
• Successfully argued Abdul-Jabbar v. General Motors Corp., 75 F.3d 1391 (9th Cir. 1996), a leading case on right of publicity, fair use, and trademark law.
• Representing Jamster International SARL in defense of coordinated consumer class actions regarding advertising and contracting practices in the cellular content industry.
• Lead trial counsel for Microsoft Corp. in jury trial resulting in one of the largest jury verdicts (compensatory and punitive damages) in a trade secret case in the information technology industry.
• Secured preliminary injunction on behalf of a publisher against an Internet portal, Perfect 10 Inc. v. Cybernet Ventures, 213F.Supp.2d.1146 (C.D. Cal. 2002), based on rulings of first impression that the portal had contributory and vicarious liability for conduct on a network of more than 300,000 websites, and was required to monitor them, and that it was unfair competition to infringe third party celebrity rights of publicity by displaying unauthorized images.
• Secured summary judgment in Guba v. Perfect 10 (N.D. Cal, 2003), entering judgment of copyright infringement against an ISP and USENET indexer, based on compiling copyrighted materials.
• Successfully argued Balzar-Wolf Assoc. Inc. v. Parley Corp., 753 F.2d 771 (9th Cir. 1985), a leading case on dealer termination law and the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
• A lead counsel in the landmark coordinated antitrust actions, In re Data General Antitrust Litigation, 529 F.Supp. 801 (9th Cir. 1981) (tying and attempted monopolization).