Plaintiff on Troll Tracker: 'Let's Get This Shut Down'
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Reprints & PermissionsPlaintiffs T. John "Johnny" Ward Jr. and Eric Albritton took the stand in the closing days in last week's closely watched Troll Tracker defamation trial, with Albritton tearfully telling the jury that two posts published by blogger -- and ex-Cisco Systems lawyer -- Rick Frenkel in October 2007 had "hurt" and "humiliated" him, and Ward describing his strong and straightforward response to the offending posts as: "Let's get this shut down."
Ward took legal action the following month, seeking to depose Google officials to determine the identity of the then-anonymous patent blogger. Once Frenkel was identified as the Troll Tracker several months later, both Ward and Albritton sued Frenkel and Cisco for defamation.
Ward and Albritton say Frenkel's posts, about changing a date on official court documents, were defamatory because they accused the two Texas lawyers of committing a crime. Lawyers for Frenkel and Cisco maintain that the posts contain no such accusations, and are a mix of true facts and legally protected opinion.
"[Frenkel] says the complaint was altered to change the filing date," Ward told the jury on Wednesday afternoon, referring to a claim filed by Albritton client ESN in October 2007 against Cisco that is at the heart of the case. "There's no doubt in my mind that what he was writing right there was a crime. That would be like me scratching it out, or conspiring with the clerk, to scratch it out."
Ward and Albritton maintain that their requests for the date change were simply an attempt to correct a glitch. The "filing date" was never changed, said Ward, and Frenkel effectively accused him of "major wrongdoing" by saying it was.
"I remember Eric being in my office, and we pulled up the blog to look at it, and we were both just incredulous," Ward said. "We came up with a plan: 'Let's get this shut down.' That was our first reaction."
"I knew I had clients and fellow lawyers who were reading the blog," Ward said. "People were talking about it. It infuriated me."
Defense lawyer Charles "Chip" Babcock asked why Ward didn't try sending Frenkel, blogging anonymously at the time, an e-mail with his complaint. Ward said he refused to engage with the Troll Tracker on his "home turf."
"You don't wrestle with a snake, you cut its head off," said Ward. "We shut the blog down, is what we did."
"You shut the blog down. And that was your objective, of course," said Babcock.
"It was my objective to get those articles [down]," said Ward.
Ward, the son of federal Judge T. John Ward, has filed more than 100 patent lawsuits against hundreds of defendant companies in the past few years. Many of Ward's claims are made on behalf of patent-holding companies whose only business is patent enforcement. Such companies are colloquially known as "patent trolls." (Ward said Wednesday that "90 to 95 percent" of his work was on a contingent fee basis.) On his blog, Frenkel wrote about patent-holding companies and their lawyers. Albritton and Ward were frequently mentioned.
