Ward v. Cisco Systems, No. 2007-2502-A (Tex. Dist. Ct., Gregg County filed Nov. 7, 2007)
Status: Withdrawn

Eric Albritton and T. John Ward, Jr., two attorneys representing a company which claims that Cisco violated its patents (in ESN, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc., Civil No. 07-00156 (E.D.Tex. stipulated dismissal Nov. 2, 2007)) both filed their own lawsuits against the author of the Patent Troll Tracker blog (www.trolltracker.blogspot.com; now members only).

The defamation suits claim that a posting on the blog defamed the attorneys by alleging that although the patent suit had been filed on Oct. 15, 2007 (the day before the patent at issue was granted), the attorneys got the court clerk to change the date to Oct. 16, 2007 in order to avoid having the case dismissed. (They parties eventually agreed to a stipulated dismissal of the patent case in Texas, although another case in Connecticut is still pending.)

Ward initially sued the anonymous blogger as John Doe, and sought to obtain the blogger’s identity by seeking to depose Google. But on Feb. 23 -- after Chicago attorney Ray Niro offered a reward for the identity of the blog’s author and the blogger received an e-mail threatening to identify him -- the blogger identified himself as Rick Frenkel, an attorney who held the position of director of intellectual property at Cisco. Ward then amended his complaint to name Frenkel and his employer.

Later, Ward withdrew the Texas state case, and filed a federal suit in Arkansas against the same defendants.

Links and Court Documents:
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1205491400004&rss=newswire
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/209237-patent-troll-tracker-sued-for-defamation
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080312/020814510.shtml
http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2008/03/troll-tracker-d.html
http://thepriorart.typepad.com/the_prior_art/2008/03/judge-wards-son.html
http://thepriorart.typepad.com/the_prior_art/2008/03/ward-jr-may-hav.html
http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/legal/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210003653&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All
Complaint: http://thepriorart.typepad.com/the_prior_art/files/Ward_v_Cisco_Gregg_complaint.pdf
Docket: http://co.gregg.tx.us/OdysseyPA/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=246928