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Patent Tracker Unmasked
Patently-O reports: "After learning that Ray Niro paid $10,000+ for information leading to his actual identity, the Patent Troll Tracker has revealed his identity -- Cisco IP Director Rick Frenkel." Until now, the frequently cited compiler of patent stats was known only by an online bio that read: "Just a lawyer, interested in patent cases, but not interested in publicity."
"I got an anonymous email, from the guy who probably collected the bounty, telling me I better tell everyone who I am (and he clearly knew), or else he would take care of it for me," Frenkel wrote on his blog. "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."
The blogger began his IP career more than 10 years ago as a clerk at Lyon & Lyon in Los Angeles then he litigated patent cases for several years at Irell & Manella. Two years ago, he moved to Silicon Valley and joined Cisco Systems. Cisco is a champion of legislation currently before Congress that would make sweeping changes to the U.S. patent system.
"My blog fulfilled a long-felt need - the need for people to share information about who are the entities out there asserting patents," Frenkel wrote. "I never expected the blog to get quite the following it did. It has brought new information to me, in the many emails from people alerting me to this, that, and the other." Read more here.
Posted by Andrew on February 25, 2008 01:56 PM | Permalink
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