British inventor seeks to take $18bn bite out of Apple in bitter patent war

Patrick Racz is in a long-running patent fight with the tech company over claims it stole his filesharing and payment system for iTunes

As a plumbing tycoon, Patrick Racz was used to enduring a deluge. But circumstances led to a very different kind of drenching, sitting in his local park in the rain contemplating the demise of his business during the dotcom crash. I lost everything. I had young children. I was embarrassed, upset that I'd let my family down. I couldn't look them in the face," he recalls.

His nadir came just before the emergence of a patent battle with Apple that would define his life. Nearly two decades on, he remains at loggerheads with the company and the US courts.