Patent Law

Embarrassing

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

Blogger Rick Frenkel, former Cisco IP honcho, ran a hot little number called Patent Troll Tracker. Anonymously. The bling was pissing on inventors using shell companies in asserting their patents, at least one of whom got pissed, namely Eric M. Albritton, plaintiff attorney for those being peed upon, in what Rick richly called the "Banana Republic of East Texas." When Frenkel, like some hapless gay Marine, was outed, thin-skinned Albritton sued Cisco for "shame, embarrassment, humiliation, mental pain and anguish," along with a "seriously injured business reputation." Cisco blew back with a comeback that Albritton should have seen coming.

To counter Albritton's "mental anguish" whine, Cisco filed a request for Albritton's medical history, tax returns and income statements, in a move which Cisco attorney Charles Babcock characterized as "libel defense 101."  Albritton tried to lay a brick on that Friday, opposing it as irrelevant. "The discovery Cisco seeks should be denied because it seeks to annoy, embarrass and harass Albritton." Apparently, the guy is easily embarrassed.

The case is Albritton v. Cisco Systems, et al, number 6:08-cv-0080, where the bananas have their own republic ("Free at last!"), Tyler Division.

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on November 05, 2008 (boomark / email).