A Cisco patent lawyer has outed himself as author of the blog Patent Troll Tracker, a vocal critic of so-called patent trolls, a 
derogatory term for companies that acquire and license intellectual property and assert them in court to win damages from vendor companies. Patent Law blog has posted up this picture of Patent Troll Tracker Cisco IP Director Rick Frenkel. In his blog posting of Feb 23. Patent Troll Tracker writes: I got an anonymous email, from the guy who probably collected the bounty [offered by Ray Niro of Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro], 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."
He adds that although his direct manager at Cisco knew about the blog, the content was his own. "Nobody at Cisco ever wrote any content for me or made any attempts to edit me, nor was anyone up the chain above my direct manager aware that I was the author."
Cisco itself is very vocal in its fight for patent reform of what it describes as the "abuses" of the current patent system. According to a statement about patent reform on its Web site, Cisco states: "The patent litigation system today is unbalanced and patent speculators are exploiting the system's unfairness to coerce high settlements from productive companies. The patent litigation rules function less and less as a neutral system for resolving disputes, and instead encourage winner-take-all, jackpot-like strategies. These lawsuits rob our economy of billions of dollars that would otherwise be invested in jobs, innovation, consumer savings and shareholder value."
Cisco earlier this month was one of a string of network vendors, includig Linksys, Foundry Networks, Extreme Networks and 3Com, that were sued by Network-1 Security Solutions for infringement of a remote power patent. Network-1 "acquires and licenses intellectual property "to maximize its value for the benefit of our investors and inventors," according to its Web site.
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Absurd
I can't believe you even give this guy any space whatsoever.
Cisco is obviously behind this whole thing. While Chandler spends time in Washington lobbying for a bill to maximize Cisco's gains from theft if IP, Frenkel spews his drivil to the IP community to arm his boss in Washington.
Why is it that Troll Tracker blasts non-practicing entities and the "troll jurisdictions" of Texas and Wisonsin, while Cisco uses the same jurisdictions for patent litigation.
In fact, according to its 10-K, the only IP litigation it deems material is the one IT intitiated in Texas!
At the same time, they are lobbying for the Reform Act which will preserve its ability to use Texas but take it away from those that don't make a product!
Go get em, Network-1!
The Only Thing Absurd
is the depth of your stupidity. Oh you mean the patent case in Texas Cisco initiated in response to a troll suit? Yeah, I guess $40 billion isn't quite enough so Cisco has to find ways to supplement growth through patent lawsuits.
Get a life.
Stranger stuff has happened
Stranger stuff has happened at Cisco. The outlook for 2008 is weak so they are up to something.
No, the depth of YOUR stupidity....
You obviously don't get it. Cisco was sued by Telcordia in Delaware and LOST, i.e. it were adjudged to be infringing valid patents.
It's response? Try to put pressure on Telcordia by suing it IN TEXAS (the troll jurisdiction).
Anyway you look at it, it made use of the same tactics it now is upset about and trying to change so that only companies, rather than NPE's, can use those jurisdictions where there is a speedy outcome and intelligent judges.
You either work for them or are just too unsophisticated to engage in this debate.
Frenkel
Are you kidding me? Why waste one even the littlest space for this person? Obviously, this techno-geek has problems that need to be addresed, and his personality must reflect the same.
Why in the world would anyone, anyone in their right, or even half-sane mind give space to this pap that was written by a Lawyer who must have so much time on his hands available that his own management should keep a close on his productivity overall.
How sad this is indeed that the company itself must have been complicit in the overall involvement of Frenkel and his self-baseless-minions. Ashamed, indeed we all should be of this pap.