So, in the case of NTP vs. RIM, part of the legal battle was fought in the UK. I was called in as an expert witness on a detail of minutia, as to when certain t

So, in the case of NTP vs. RIM, part of the legal battle was fought in the UK. I was called in as an expert witness on a detail of minutia, as to when certain things had been said publicly, which could be used as evidence of prior art. They had pulled up copies of the comp.mail.sendmail FAQ, for which I was the maintainer in 95-96. They asked me if a certain section of the document they found was a clear and accurate representation of the way the document actually existed at the time. They contacted me and not Eric Allman, because his role in the maintenance of the FAQ didn’t cover the period of time they were interested in, even though I believe he actually wrote that section years earlier. What was important to them was the state of the document at the time, not who wrote what when. I want back to various archive sources, and confirmed that what they had appeared to me to be an accurate copy of the file from that point in time. I was literally one day away from having to appear in UK court through a videoconference facility at the offices of a local law firm here in Austin, TX, where I was actually going to testify to that statement. But they settled the case instead. Ultimately, I think the critical part of the process is to get an expert in the field to be willing to testify as to the material you are showing them, and not so much the source of that material.