While in college, I merged two forms of open to the public technology and created a new method for sharing information for a particular use that has not been used before and it's not patented.
I don't know or understand everything about patents, but I purposely didn't want to patent the method because I personally don't believe it should be patented and I want other people to use it as well.
I'm not sure what qualifies as "publicized", but my technology has been shared on numerous websites, youtube videos, etc.
I wanted to find out if it's possible for someone to create a similar concept, try to patent it and then even come after me even if I've been using it years before them?
I wouldn't want a patent troll to come after me when I can't even defend myself because I can't afford a lawyer. I would prefer the technology to be open, forever.