Clients at all stages of their lifecycle trust Salil Bali to protect their intellectual property assets. Whether for a start-up, or a mature tech company with a global IP portfolio, Salil brings out-of-the-box solutions and a scientific background to stop infringers, resolve disputes, and secure favorable outcomes.  

Salil helps clients in a wide range of industries, from consumer products to LED lighting, software, electronics, biotech, pharma and medical devices, protect and enforce their IP rights through patent, trademark, copyright, and unfair competition.

Salil assesses each client’s IP posture from all angles to anticipate licensing or potential litigation exposure. Guided by their business goals, he designs creative and aggressive legal strategies to help businesses grow in a highly competitive business landscape.  

Before his legal career, Salil worked in the biotechnology industry. He focused on the bioinformatics, medical device and diagnostics fields. With this background and experience, Salil puts himself in his clients’ shoes when addressing complex issues from both a legal and business perspective.

Some highlights of his career include the following cases:

  • Secured a favorable settlement for an e-commerce mobile device accessory company in patent infringement litigation brought by a competitor and its U.S. subsidiary. After finding and disclosing compelling prior art challenging the asserted patents, our IP team negotiated a favorable settlement that secured our client’s right to sell its products uninterrupted for eight months.
  • Defended Iteris, a technology company providing sensors and systems for traffic intersection management, in a patent infringement case in which Wavetronic claimed our client’s “Vantage Vector” product violated its patent related to monitoring traffic flow. Defeated a preliminary injunction and reached a favorable settlement of all claims.
  • Representing Edwards Lifesciences in a patent infringement and unfair competition case against an Indian competitor that knocked off Edwards’ artificial heart valve technology. Before the defendant’s product was approved in the United States, the team caught the competitor promoting the infringing product at a U.S. tradeshow, allowing Edwards to protect its intellectual property in the United States.
  • Defending Feit Electric in a patent infringement matter in which the plaintiff claims our client infringes its patents on a particular style of LED light bulbs.
  • Represented Ellison Educational Products in a nationwide patent enforcement campaign against a series of competitors infringing its patent on a method of alignment and use of chemically etched dyes in the craft industry. Secured favorable settlements of all suits for the client.
  • Defended Qustodio in a patent infringement case involving an invention that managed children’s use of mobile devices. After getting the case dismissed, achieved award of attorneys’ fees for striking the plaintiff’s SLAPP claims.
  • Obtained summary judgment for Synoptek -- a managed IT services provider — in a trademark infringement case. The court canceled the defendant’s infringing ‘SYNAPTEK’ trademark, and the defendant was required to change its name.
  • Filed claims in the Central District of California to protect AutoWeb (formerly Autobytel) from an international ring of criminals attempting to misuse its intellectual property and corporate goodwill to defraud consumers. With the help of domestic and international law enforcement and a court order, we froze assets, took down infringing domains and curtailed the fraud and infringement
  • Secured an emergency temporary restraining order for a client in the enterprise security space against an independent contractor who misappropriated the client’s source code to launch a directly competing product. The defendant agreed to abandon the infringing product and enter a settlement favorable to the client.
  • Secured an emergency temporary restraining order on behalf of a developer of an app that connects stranded motorists with service. When the independent contractor software developer failed to assign and turn over the developed work product to the client, continued to access the developed source code and interfered with the client's business. In light of the TRO, our team negotiated cessation of all further interference and secured a favorable settlement for our client.

Awards: Super Lawyers "Southern California Rising Star," 2015-2019.

Credentials

Education
  • University of San Francisco, J.D., 2008
  • University of California, Davis, B.S., biology, 2000
  • University of California, Davis, B.A., English, 2000
  • Past President, South Asian Bar Association of Southern California
  • Executive Committee, North American South Asian Bar Association
  • IP Programming Subcommittee, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
  • American Bar Association (Intellectual Property and Litigation Sections)
  • Los Angeles County Bar Association
  • Orange County Bar Association
  • American Intellectual Property Law Association
  • International Trademark Association
  • Board Member, Tech Coast Venture Network
  • California
  • Central District, CA
  • Northern District, CA
  • Southern District, CA
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit