I just read the entire thread (again, whilst waiting for a shellac coat to dry
Some fairly scurrilous back door dealing, but fairly typical story of financial muscle believing they have a right to take whatever information they want & make it their own. The bearing edge story in that thread (although apparently only relating to a back cut angle = so what!) is certainly something you can see playing out right now (not Tama).
If you're a small builder with some good ideas, the only thing you can do to protect yourself is concentrate on things that aren't easily scaleable, otherwise expect your design to appear sometime soon with a patent number & full marketing express train.
I can't speak for C&C, or the story, but if true, non of this surprises me. Genuinely, when we were developing Origin, we had our emails hacked. I had a very smart company (who I work with in another field) trace the source/sources, & the results were enlightening to say the least.