Cisco Lawyer Outs Self As "Patent Troll Tracker"

DustyShadow writes "Slashdot previously discussed the $10,000 bounty (since raised to $15,000) that was put on the identity of the Patent Troll Tracker author by a law firm that represents patent holding 'shell' companies. After he received a threatening email last week, the author identified himself as Richard Frenkel, a director in Cisco Systems' intellectual property group. According to law.com, many patent litigators have followed the Troll Tracker closely and are worried that it may now be discontinued. According to the lawyer who offered the bounty, it has not been claimed."

Comments

Re:Sad

[sjames]

He is an experianced lawyer, I'm sure he considered that very carefully before even starting his blog.

Depends.

[jd]

If the patent trolls thought they could get away with dipping the dollar notes in poison (similar to what was done to Donald Woods' children), I'm sure they'd have no problem with paying him. Although they're stupid enough to destroy the patent system, I doubt they're that stupid. On the other hand, I could see them paying the reward to Cisco to dump the guy. Employment in the US is "by will" and there are no IT unions, so the employee has no protection against malicious termination of employment. (The patent trolls could, quite legally, make it extremely difficult for him to ever be hired again.)

Re:Depends.

[MasterC]

Employment in the US is "by will"...

Unless, of course, the guy has an employment contract.

Re:Depends.

[kharchenko]

Can you please explain why running an informative blog on patent reform suddenly renders him unfit for employment. Did he disclose some private information that was trusted to him? Did he undermine the interests of his employer? How come noone would look at this and see a talented layer with a knack for identifying abusive patents?

Re:Depends.

[TooMuchToDo]

Which, from a quick Google search of him and reading his blog and the comments of others in the patent litigation field, is quite likely. I doubt Cisco is going to dump their top IP lawyer because of some tool in Chicago wanting to out him.

Re:Sad

[orclevegam]

TFA says Cisco has gone on record as saying that employees are allowed to have private blogs so long as they follow the business code of conduct. So, short of violating some law, or trying to claim Cisco is somehow involved they'll leave him alone to do his thing.

Patent system is too expensive for taxpayers

[Anonymous Coward]

Patent Troll Tracker said: ...the number of claims being examined has quintupled in recent years, while the average years of service of the examiner core has been decreasing.

Clearly the US government and US taxpayers can no longer afford the patent system as it stands today. It must be changed, simplified, and streamlined to a level of activity that the taxpayer can afford, and is willing to pay for.

Re:Patent system is too expensive for taxpayers

[Retric]

That depends on the rate of increase and the rate of turn over.

Start with 100 people av. 10 years exp.

Over 1 year 4 people that average 10 years exp leave and 10 people with 0exp join. And the 96 people that stayed gained one year of experience.

New average is (96 * 11)/105 = 10.06 years exp which is slight increase with a 5% annual growth rate.

Re:No bounty on the offerer of the first bounty?

[somersault]

I agree! It's always best to blow everything out of all proportion and start an arms race!

No good deed

[TheDrewbert]

goes unpunished...

Re:Bounty

[Minwee]

"I'll get 15K for saying who you are, you pay me 5K and I'll keep quiet."

Of course what he really meant was "I'll get $15K for saying who you are. You pay me $5K and then I'll have $20K in total."