|
Patent Troll Tracker ran by director of intellectual property at Cisco |
|
|
|
Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
|
|
Tuesday, 26 February 2008 |
 Patent Troll Tracker (PTT), a popular blog that was ran by an anonymous blogger, specializes in tracing the identity of individuals
and entities behind so-called "patent troll" lawsuits. However, as it turns out, the anonymous blogger was Rick Frenkel, director of intellectual property at Cisco.
A patent troll is a controversial and derogatory term used to describe entities
that acquire patents and assert them in court to win damages from companies that
manufacture and design products. In addition, these entities usually do not manufacture anything and their sole business is to sue others for profit.
The PTT blog posted about the many shell companies that often file troll
lawsuits, as well as the lawyers that represent them. One frequent target of the
site, Ray Niro, founder and senior partner of Chicago-based Niro, Scavone,
Haller & Niro, offered a $10,000 bounty to anyone who identified the troll
tracker.
On February 23, the anonymous blogger posted on the PTT in which he identified himself. Mr. Frenkel said he
had been unmasked, ironically, by someone who sent him an anonymous email. In the blogpost,
I got an anonymous email, from the guy who probably collected the (,000)
bounty, telling me I better tell everyone who I am (and he clearly knew), or
else he would take care of it for me.
The clear threat in
the email is that he would do it in a way I wouldn't be happy about. I don't
know what that means, but as I have been growing weary of anonymity anyway, here
I am. Mr. Niro said the anonymous emailer wasn't connected to him. He said,
I'm happy I don't have to pay the reward because I have no idea how the
troll tracker was unmasked. Just to let my enormous number of my readers know that I am a real person and I am not a director of any intellectual property division. However, I do hate patent trolls with a passion.
|
