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From: smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: RSA cryptographic algorithm patented?
Message-ID: <1012@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 16-Jul-85 07:45:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: ulysses.1012
Posted: Tue Jul 16 07:45:34 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 20:36:46 EDT
References: <9028@ucbvax.ARPA> <3154@cornell.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 11

> I'm no lawyer, but from my reading of general articles on patent law,
> an algorithm is one of the things that specifically CAN'T be patented.
> One can patent a gadget (that's how the Unibus was patented), but one
> can't patent an idea unless it's "reduced to practice", i.e., implemented.
> That would seem to mean that one could patent a box that encrypted data
> using the RSA algorithm, but one couldn't patent the algorithm itself.
> What's going on here?

The patentability of algorithms is still an unsettled question.  At least,
that was the impression I got from the USENIX tutorial on intellectual
property in Portland.