Professor Helmut Dersch is a University lecturer in Germany. He also wrote Panorama Tools which is one of the finest pieces of software available for panoramic photography, in my opinion.
Early in 1999, Professor Dersch was harrassed by lawyers from IPIX. They alleged that Dersch was infringing the company's patents with his freeware and open source tools. These claims are absurd, but Professor Dersch was forced to close his website. See IPIX Free for the full story.