Around 1998 I built an open source application on the Newton called Hemlock which loaded, parsed, and used Sherlock search templates to grab data from internet sites just like Sherlock did. Sherlock can either search from the internet or can search from files. The Newton didn't have a filesystem: it had a searchable database system. One of the things I was working on, and proposed on Usenet, was to search both the internet and the Newton database system in one shot, though I eventually didn't do it as the Newton already had a great search tool for the database system built in.
About 15 years later I walked into my lab and got served with a subpoena by Samsung's legal team for deposition. Everybody's lawyers suddenly wanted to talk to me. They dug through my postings, my software, old files on my laptop, even the old Newtons in my office. Between Apple, Samsung, and the very helpful SFLC legal team, the whole thing was like being dropped into a tank of very nice sharks.
One of the patents Apple was going after Samsung for was 8,086,604, the "604" patent. Hemlock, and my proposals on the Usenet for improving it, predated this patent by quite a bit and easily covered most of its claims. Eventually Samsung decided to argue that they didn't violate the patent, rather than argue that it was invalid. That turned out to be the right decision (they won). But had they gone the invalidation route, I'd likely have found myself on the stand in SF. That patent is still live, and my prior art is still ready to invalidate it.
About 15 years later I walked into my lab and got served with a subpoena by Samsung's legal team for deposition. Everybody's lawyers suddenly wanted to talk to me. They dug through my postings, my software, old files on my laptop, even the old Newtons in my office. Between Apple, Samsung, and the very helpful SFLC legal team, the whole thing was like being dropped into a tank of very nice sharks.
One of the patents Apple was going after Samsung for was 8,086,604, the "604" patent. Hemlock, and my proposals on the Usenet for improving it, predated this patent by quite a bit and easily covered most of its claims. Eventually Samsung decided to argue that they didn't violate the patent, rather than argue that it was invalid. That turned out to be the right decision (they won). But had they gone the invalidation route, I'd likely have found myself on the stand in SF. That patent is still live, and my prior art is still ready to invalidate it.