Blogging as a private pastime or hobby is become more and more popular, especially with easy to use online tools such as wordpress, typepad or blogger.com. Blogs are also, in most instances, creations of anonymous writers (take my own blog as example). Famous examples include the AnonymousLawyer, who posted saucy details of the internal workings of a law firm (later on turned into a book and the AnonymousLawyer was ousted) or the famous South African “Sex Blogger” named “Skye”.

In fact, in virtually every sphere of professional life, one is sure to find some kind of anonymous blogger, lurking around, such as Doctor Anonymous, “the Blog of the Anonymous Clerk“, Anonymous Prof  or The Anonymous Teacher.

The latest hoo-ha over an anonymous blogger comes from the US, where a Cisco employee working in their patent department, started a blog called the Patent Troll Tracker. A Patent Troll is a term loosely used for companies or lawyers who register patents in the hope that somebody infringes on the said patent, which opens up the door for some nice litigation with some really nice settlements. The Patent Troll Tracker tried to keep track of and report on such litigation and ended up being highly regarded and quoted – once or twice, it was even quoted as “proof” in litigation against some Patent Trolls.

The Patent Troll Tracker became such a thorn in the side of certain attorneys, that some even offered a reward of $5 000 (later upped to $15 000) if the writer of the Patent Troll Tracker was exposed.

Recently, writer of the Patent Troll Tracker, Richard Frenkel,  revealed his identity – which has led to a number of cases being instituted against, not only the writer but also his employer, Cisco, for defamation. Cisco was cited as a defendant because of the fact that one or two of the writers managers knew that Frenkel was authoring the Patent Troll Tracker. Commendably, Cisco has supported Frenkel and have now amended their blogging policy to require from employees to state that the posts on a blog is made so in the employee’s personal capacity.

The lesson to be learned from this is that all employers should be aware of the potential dangers which lurk in the shadows of the various blogging sites and should address this through their normal electronic communications policies, to safeguard the company against unnecessary risk and exposure.

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