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Cisco, Troll Tracker Blogger Sued For Defamation

Posted by kdawson on from the sleeping-under-bridges dept.

Joe Mullin writes "We've discussed Troll Tracker here before — the anonymous blogger who was outed last month as Rick Frenkel, a Cisco lawyer. Since then, two lawyers from the notoriously patent-friendly Eastern District of Texas have filed defamation suits against Frenkel and Cisco, and Frenkel's blog has been shuttered. One of the plaintiffs, a renowned patent judge's son, may have been hunting the anonymous blogger for months. This week Cisco announced new blogging guidelines in response to the Troll Tracker fiasco. The company acknowledged that 'a few Cisco employees used poor judgment' during secret-blog-time, but they're largely standing by their man. Cisco's new rules will prohibit only anonymous blogging by employees about issues for which 'they have responsibilities at Cisco.'"

12 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Good for Cisco. by inTheLoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A blog from a technical lawyer is just what the world needs. The only problem could be if the blogger was dealing with issues that concerned Cisco without listing his affiliation. Otherwise, Cisco should have been proud of their employee. It's good they are standing by him and hopefully they will trounce this groundless lawsuit.

    Now all they have to do is repudiate software patents and stop cooperating with China.

    --
    No calls now, I'm ...
    1. Re:Good for Cisco. by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes such a good thing, just what the world needs. And he's being sued. I can't for the life of me figure out how this sort of thing happens; it's in the CONSTITUTION for crying out loud that congress can't make laws restricting speech. And-- oh there's a law restricting speech. And another, and another. Makes me want to become a judge just so that I can mobilize the US marshals and incarcerate every single member of congress indefinitely for constitutional violations.

    2. Re:Good for Cisco. by Original+Replica · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The only problem could be if the blogger was dealing with issues that concerned Cisco without listing his affiliation.

      IANAL, so I'll ask those of you who are, is there anyway that whistle blower laws could protect Frenkel? He might not need protection from his employer, but he need protection because of who his employer is. He was in a good position to spot and point out foul play and he did just that. Now he is facing retaliation for doing so, isn't that what whistleblower laws are meant to protect?

      --
      We are all just people.
    3. Re:Good for Cisco. by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 3, Interesting
      The Supreme Court can't make laws, they can only decide their constitutionality. They're wrong for not striking down libel laws, but Congress is the one at fault (for once). Yes I say for once.. people on slashdot seem to love the courts, keeping insane laws mostly in check.. how about this quote from McCarthyism:

      Eleven leaders of the Communist Party were charged and convicted under the Smith Act in 1949. Ten defendants were given sentences of five years and the eleventh was sentenced to three years. All of the defense attorneys were cited for contempt of court and were also given prison sentences.
      By far the most disgusting period in American history.. courts making up their own laws and charging people with contempt of court as a way to enforce them. People actually panicked about water florination! "Campaigners asserted that it was part of an international Jewish, Roman Catholic or psychiatric conspiracy intended to establish United Nations-run concentration camps in the United States." Anyway, a bit off-topic.
    4. Re:Good for Cisco. by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The 1st Amendment was not intended to, and did not, eliminate the tort of libel.

  2. Big hand for Troll Tracker by pieterh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This guy stood up to the patent mafia and told what was happening. The system is corrupt. It does not promote innovation. It promotes lawsuits and settlements, and the lawyers get richer.

    Troll Tracker did a public service by documenting these scum. We need to know.

    Cisco are doing good by supporting him. Thanks.

    --
    My blog
    1. Re:Big hand for Troll Tracker by Naughty+Bob · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The system is corrupt.
      What surprises me most in all of this is that it's mostly a father-son team who have made the Eastern district of Texas such a judicial laughing stock when it comes to patents.

      According to one of the links in the summary, the plaintiffs are usually represented by lawyer T. John "Johnny" Ward, Jr., and the cases are heard by his dad, Judge T. John Ward.

      This reminds me of a bad Dukes of Hazard storyline.
      --
      "Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
    2. Re:Big hand for Troll Tracker by Original+Replica · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How is it that the judge is not forced to step down after willingly trying cases where he has such an obvious conflict of interest?

      Something about Texan father/son combinations that just makes America turn to shit.

      --
      We are all just people.
  3. Cisco is handling this issue better then most by colinmcnamara · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One thing that is important to point out, is that Cisco is treating Rick Frenkel extremely well. They aren't firing him, restricting him from blogging, or taking other knee jerk reactions. What they are doing is requiring that a Cisco employee put boiler plate on their sites.

    Cisco itself has been trying to embrace web2.0 collaboration for a couple years now. In some instances like http://blogs.cisco.com/home/ they do really well, providing a conduit for actual engineers to comment on technology and the companies products. In other instances like second life, they have gone completely off target and missed the whole point (my personal rant, second life is NOT web2.0). The important thing to focus on, is that Cisco is consistently trying to encourage open communications of its employees with the general public, and should be apploauded for their attempts.

    Disclaimer - I am NOT a Cisco employee, and these are my OPINIONS.

    --
    Colin McNamara - CCIE #18233 "The difficult we do immediately, the impossible just takes a little longer"
  4. Re:personally ... by klapaucjusz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think that any company that has patent and is not implementing them [...] should loose their patent

    Patents should not be awarded to companies, only to individuals.

    Historically, patent letters have been invented for a reason: to avoid a master craftsman carrying his trade secrets into the grave. The deal is simple: you get a monopoly on an invention until your death, and society as a whole benefits once you're no more. Simple, clean model.

    Awarding patents to companies is a subversion of this model, and is the source of all of our troubles.

  5. Plaintiff is Judge's Son by jellie · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Several other articles about the story are at law.com, including this one. For those who haven't read the articles: One of the plaintiffs is the son of Judge T. John Ward, who sits in the Eastern District Court of Texas. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge David Folsom. Folsom is quoted as saying:

    "I have a Cisco case [ESN v. Cisco] pending in my court, and Johnny Ward's son is representing one of the parties, so I probably shouldn't say anything, but it won't influence my outlook on matters a bit." I don't know, but it sounds a little too "chummy." Can the case be moved to a more neutral district?

    The blog is not "shuttered" per se, but viewable by invitation only. Hopefully, Frenkel will continue to write, but it might be hard with the lawsuit.
  6. Lot of confusion here by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 4, Informative

    It seems most of the commentators here have not looked at the filings in this case, or read the numerous articles about it on various legal blogs. It is not quite as is being reported here. The two lawyers who are suing him were representing the other side in a case against Cisco. On his blog, he accused them of altering the filing date on some court documents. That's a very serious accusation--if they did it, it would be both a breach of legal ethics and a felony.

    In general, it is very very bad for a lawyer to publicly accuse another lawyer of committing a felony unless the accuser has some pretty damned convincing evidence.

    And it is a zillion times worse when the accusing lawyer is counsel for the other side in a case the accused lawyer is working on.

    Troll Tracker screwed up big time here (heck, commenting AT ALL on a case involving Cisco is a bit shocking), and is probably going to have to cough up a public apology and a wad of cash. It's not about free speech, as some other posters have suggested--it is a plain, old-fashioned "if you accuse someone of a serious crime, you'd better be able to back it up" case.

    There's an informative post about the case here. That's a handy blog about activity in the Eastern District of Texas. There was also good coverage in Business Week.