David Ball is a patent litigation partner in the Washington, DC office.

• Trial lawyer with the experience to take cases to juries and win
• Record of success in the most significant and complex cases
• Recognized for giving back to the profession through pro bono work

After completing Bachelor's and Master's degrees in electrical engineering (and receiving honors including University and GTE Fellowships at the University of Texas for his graduate work), Mr. Ball held a series of government appointments providing direct courtroom trial and appellate experience. In 1999-2003, Mr. Ball was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division for the District of Columbia, where he tried five cases in District Court, including three jury trials; litigated two complex and highly accelerated preliminary injunction proceedings; and argued two appeals to the D.C. Circuit. For example, Mr. Ball was lead government counsel in successfully defending the District of Columbia’s "Megan’s Law" sexual offender registry from constitutional attack.

Before becoming an AUSA, in 1996-98, Mr. Ball served as an Associate Solicitor of the US Patent and Trademark Office, where he argued five appeals to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the appellate court with exclusive jurisdiction to hear patent appeals) and briefed many others. Before that, in 1994-95, Mr. Ball clerked for Judge Randall R. Rader on the Federal Circuit.

Mr. Ball left government service in 2003 to join the patent litigation department at Weil Gotshal, where he has participated in a series of high-stakes victories.

• Mr. Ball was a senior member of the Weil Gotshal team representing Cisco Systems, Inc. in Storage Technology Corp. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., No. C 00-1176 SI (N.D. Cal.), in which the plaintiff made a $3 billion damages claim alleging infringement of digital networking technologies, and Weil Gotshal obtained for Cisco a jury verdict that Cisco did not infringe and that all of the asserted patent claims were invalid.
• Mr. Ball was a senior member of the Weil Gotshal team representing Lexar Media, Inc. in Lexar Media, Inc. v. Toshiba Corp. and Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., No. 1-20-CV 812458 (Cal. Superior Ct., Santa Clara County), in which Lexar obtained one of the largest jury awards ever secured in a US intellectual property trial, which resulted in a settlement of $288 million.
• Mr. Ball was a senior member of the Weil Gotshal team representing Amkor Technology, Inc. in Tessera, Inc. v. Amkor Technology, Inc., No. 14 268 (ICC Int'l Ct. Arb.), an ICC arbitration resolving a license dispute involving semiconductor packaging technology, in which the Arbitral Tribunal found that most of the packages accused by Tessera were not subject to the patent royalty provisions of the license, and the damage award was well below Tessera's claim.
• Mr. Ball also has represented Intel, Inc. in a patent litigation involving processor architecture technology; Yahoo! Inc. in a patent litigation involving digital rights management technology; Cutera, Inc., in a patent litigation involving medical laser technology; STATS ChipPAC Ltd. and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. in a patent litigation involving semiconductor packaging technology; STATS ChipPAC Ltd. in an ITC investigation involving semiconductor packaging technology; and Network Appliance, Inc. in patent litigations involving computer storage device networking technology.

Until 2008, Mr. Ball was resident in Weil Gotshal's New York office, where he taught a two-semester-hour seminar in patent litigation at Columbia in spring 2007 and again in spring 2008. Mr. Ball moved to Weil Gotshal's Washington, DC office in July 2008 to help expand the firm's Washington patent litigation practice.

Mr. Ball is also active in pro bono litigation, where he emphasizes using Weil Gotshal’s considerable courtroom talent in the public interest.

• Mr. Ball leads the Weil Gotshal team which, along with the Urban Justice Center and the civil rights firm of Koob & Magoolaghan, is plaintiff’s counsel in Elmaghraby v. Ashcroft, No. 1:04-CV-01809-JG-SMG (E.D.N.Y.), brought by Muslim men who were victims of brutal abuse and mistreatment in Federal detention in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. In February 2006, the Federal government settled with one of the plaintiffs, representing the first time that the United States has paid compensation to a victim of post-September 11th detention actions. In recognition of this accomplishment, Mr. Ball and the entire plaintiff's counsel team were named Finalists for the 2006 Trial Lawyer of the Year award given by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Foundation. The case continues with regard to another plaintiff.
• Mr. Ball also leads Weil Gotshal teams representing Save the Children in an administrative law matter and the Equal Rights Center (ERC, a Washington, DC based civil rights organization) in anticipated state court litigation regarding discriminatory treatment of ERC testers by a suburban Maryland apartment complex.
• When resident in New York, Mr. Ball led the Weil Gotshal team representing Westchester Residential Opportunities, Inc. (WRO) in administrative litigation before the New York State Division of Human Rights regarding discriminatory treatment of WRO testers by real estate agencies in Westchester County, New York.
• Mr. Ball was also the co-founder of Weil Gotshal’s program, under the leadership of Legal Aid of New York, to represent low-income tenants in New York Housing Court.