The Prior Art

TPA Housekeeping: New Address, Phone, E-Mail

The Prior Art has returned to San Francisco, where I share an office with sister publication The Recorder.

Please note that office has moved to a new address:

1035 Market Street, Suite 500, San Francisco, California, 94103. 

The office move means I also have a new phone number at which I can be contacted: (415) 490-9944.

Finally, IP Law & Business' parent company has gone back to being ALM, which means I have a new email address that many sources and readers will find familiar: jmullin (at) alm.com.

IP Law & Business (IPLB) is part of the national magazine group of ALM, which includes titles like The American Lawyer and Corporate Counsel. The Prior Art is IPLB's in-house blog, authored by me, IPLB staff reporter Joe Mullin, and edited by IPLB editor Ed Shanahan. 

Photo: "Truth" mural, Market Street, San Francisco, California. Flickr / vision63

 

Troll Tracker defamation case settles before going to jury

After four days of testimony, the "Troll Tracker" defamation lawsuit ended in a confidential settlement the day before the East Texas jury hearing it was set to begin deliberations. 

Plaintiff Eric Albritton and defendants Cisco Systems and Rick Frenkel, a former Cisco lawyer who blogged anonymously as the Patent Troll Tracker, settled the case Monday night, shortly after Judge Richard Schell ruled that the jurors would have to find "actual malice" on the part of Frenkel and Cisco in order for Albritton to win the punitive damages he was seeking from the tech giant. 

None of the lawyers involved in the case would comment on the settlement Monday. Cisco issued a statement Tuesday morning in which it said the dispute between the parties "has been resolved to their mutual satisfaction, and Rick Frenkel and Cisco apologize for the statements of Rick Frenkel on the Troll Tracker blog regarding Eric M. Albritton." Frenkel is now of counsel at the Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Johnny Ward and Eric Albritton on Troll Tracker blog: "Let's get this shut down."

Plaintiffs T. John "Johnny" Ward Jr. and Eric Albritton took the stand in the closing days of this week’s closely watched Troll Tracker defamation trial, with Albritton tearfully telling the jury that two posts published by blogger—and ex-Cisco Systems lawyer—Rick Frenkel in October 2007 had "hurt" and "humiliated" him, while Ward described his strong and straightforward response to the offending posts as: "Let's get this shut down."

Ward took legal action the following month, seeking to depose Google officials to determine the identity of the then-anonymous patent blogger. Once Frenkel was identified as the Patent Troll Tracker several months later, both Ward and Albritton sued Frenkel and Cisco for defamation.

Ward and Albritton say Frenkel's posts, about changing a date on official court documents, were defamatory because they accused the two Texas lawyers of committing a crime.  Lawyers for Frenkel and Cisco maintain that the posts contain no such accusations, and are a mix of true facts and legally protected opinion.

Rick Frenkel takes the stand in Troll Tracker defamation lawsuit

Former patent blogger Rick Frenkel took the stand in the federal courthouse in Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday, and apologized for referring to the Eastern District of Texas as a "Banana Republic" in a post he published as the "Patent Troll Tracker." But Frenkel insisted his blogging about a patent infringement suit against his then-employer, Cisco Systems, was not defamatory.

"You know, I think I was outraged over a situation ... and I used words that were strong," said Frenkel. "But I sure didn't mean to hurt anyone by it." Frenkel apologized for using the phrase, and noted that he took it off the blog after 24 hours. In October of 2007, about 500 people per day were accessing the Troll Tracker blog, he added.

At issue in the case are two particular Troll Tracker posts, dated Oct. 17 and 18, 2007. Plaintiff Eric Albritton claims the posts accused him of a crime by alleging that he "conspired" with a courthouse clerk in the plaintiffs-friendly Eastern District of Texas to change a critical date on a docket in an infringement suit he filed against Cisco. For his part, Frenkel says he was outraged that the change was made without a motion being filed.

Troll Tracker defamation case goes to trial -- opening statements heard

A hot, muggy, Southern rainstorm came down in short squalls in Tyler, Texas, Monday morning, drenching the city’s central square just as jury selection got underway in the Patent Troll Tracker defamation case, being argued in the federal courthouse here.

The Prior Art blog is reporting from the trial over the next several days.

We’ve covered the background and development of Albritton v. Cisco Systems, a case brought by lawyer and east Texas patent litigation player Eric Albritton against Rick Frenkel and his former employer Cisco Systems, alleging that in the course of Frenkel's brief and anonymous blogging career, he libeled Albritton.

(Earlier TPA coverage of Albritton v. Cisco and Ward v. Cisco: Troll Tracker sued, 3/11/20008; Judge Ward's Son may have pursued Troll Tracker for months, 3/12/2008; Frenkel, Cisco to fight defamation suits in East Texas, 5/27/2008; Troll Tracker blogger Rick Frenkel moves to Wilson Sonsini, 8/4/2008; Troll Tracker defamation update, 11/7/2008; Cisco says Frenkel told the truth, 12/9/2008.)

More recently, sibling publication Texas Lawyer just published an overview of the facts of the case here.

Is Intellectual Ventures revving up its lawsuit machine? Will we know when it does?

Today's Recorder has a story revealing that patent-holding giant Intellectual Ventures appears to be connected to a patent lawsuit recently filed in Chicago against Kodak and CDW Corp. Picture Frame Innovations, LLC v. Eastman Kodak Company et al., 09-cv-04888, N.D. Illinois. Intellectual Ventures was founded by former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold (pictured at right).

The Recorder reports that patent number 7,107,605, covering a digital picture frame, was originally filed by a small software company, but ended up being asserted by a small patent-holding company, Ez4media.

Since then, the patent has been moved through a holding company affiliated with Intellectual Ventures and then into Picture Frame Innovations, a shell company owned by James Beauregard Parker. Parker's company filed suit against Kodak and CDW on August 10. TPA readers may know Parker as someone who owns other holding companies, including some—such as BarTex Research and Illinois Computer Research—that have asserted Scott Harris patents.

An earlier Ez4media lawsuit against Apple, now settled, was briefly noted by TPA in January. (See bullet point midway down that post.) Both Ez4media and Picture Frame Innovations are represented by the Niro Scavone law firm.

Ray Niro says "IV is not involved in any way, shape, or form" in the Picture Frame Innovations lawsuit, but neither he nor IV will answer the key question: whether the patent-holding company has any financial interest in the litigation.