Inventor Involved In Patent Troll Tracker Lawsuit Arrested For Weapons Stockpiling

from the exactly-what-the-founding-fathers-had-in-mind dept

Sometimes you come across stories so odd, you just don't know how to classify them. You may have heard, recently, about the New England man, Gregory Girard, who was arrested for illegal weapons stockpiling in his home. The guy, who claimed that he believed Armageddon was quickly approaching, had recently told his wife both, "It's fine to shoot people in the head because traitors deserve it," and "Don't talk to people, shoot them instead." Not surprisingly, he's being held without bail for being too dangerous.

So, what does that have to do with stuff we write about here? As noted at The Prior Art, Girard is the inventor and claimed patent holder at the center of the high-profile patent infringement lawsuit that involved Rick Frenkel, who had been the anonymous guy behind the still greatly missed Patent Troll Tracker blog. As you may recall, Frenkel was sued for defamation in East Texas, after he had questioned the legitimacy of a date change on a patent lawsuit filed against Cisco (where Frenkel worked at the time). Basically, the lawsuit appeared to have been filed the day before the patent was granted and then, magically, the date changed. The lawyers involved suggested it was an honest mistake, but others suspected otherwise.

Either way, Frenkel's case settled, and (separately) the judge just recently tossed out the patent infringement lawsuit against Cisco that resulted in all of this, after realizing that it appeared that Girard and the holding company he had set up for lawsuits involving this patent didn't actually own the patent in question. Girard had developed the invention while employed by another company, which was working on similar technology, and Girard's own employment agreement said he would automatically assign any inventions over to the company. Still, during the lawsuit, Girard's lawyers tried to play him up as an All-American inventor:

"Mr. Girard is exactly what the founding fathers had in mind when they penned the Patent Clause in the basic Article I of the U.S. Constitution."

But perhaps not what they had in mind when they penned the rest of the Constitution.

Filed Under: guns, patent troll tracker

Patent Troll Tracker Case Settled... So When Can Frenkel Start Blogging Again?

from the pretty-pretty-please... dept

We'd already noted that it seemed like an uphill battle for the lawyers in Eastern Texas to prove defamation claims against the "Patent Troll Tracker" Rick Frenkel, and last night the judge chose the high bar of an "actual malice" standard to determine if Frenkel was guilty of defamation. With such a high standard, it seemed exceedingly unlikely that the plaintiffs could win a case, so perhaps it's no surprise that the two sides agreed to settle the case before it went to the jury. While no one knows the details of the settlement, Frenkel and Cisco issued an "apology," and I'd guess not much more, if anything.

But, really, all that's besides the point. The real question is whether or not this means Frenkel will start blogging again. Some of his statements in the past (and having to go through this entire ridiculous process) suggest that he may not blog again. However, I'm hopeful that he'll get back to it, though obviously not anonymously any more. His work in highlighting some of the more nefarious actions of patent system abusers is still sorely missed.

Filed Under: blogging, defamation, patent troll tracker, patents, rick frenkel
Companies: cisco