Plaintiffs 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.
