Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utah-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!hplabs!utah-cs!b-davis From: b-davis@utah-cs.UUCP (Brad Davis) Newsgroups: net.legal Subject: Re: RSA cryptographic algorithm patented? Message-ID: <3407@utah-cs.UUCP> Date: Tue, 16-Jul-85 14:45:06 EDT Article-I.D.: utah-cs.3407 Posted: Tue Jul 16 14:45:06 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 18-Jul-85 06:14:52 EDT References: <9028@ucbvax.ARPA> <3154@cornell.UUCP> Reply-To: b-davis@utah-cs.UUCP (Brad Davis) Organization: University of Utah VCIS Group Lines: 20 Summary: In article <3154@cornell.UUCP> hal@gvax.UUCP (Hal Perkins) writes: >from net.crypt: >> Unfortunately, he did not reference that this RSA Public Key Cryptosystem >> was patented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983 >> (U.S. Patent 4,405,829). The worldwide exclusive license to this patent >> was then purchased from MIT by RSA Security Inc., a company founded by >> the inventors of the RSA algorithm to develop this technology. >> >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. I'm no lawyer either but a patent attorney told me that algorithms are not patentable. In fact only firmware that is tightly bound to patentable hardware will even be considered. I think that RSA PKC is a hardware device with some scare tactics to stifle competition. -- Brad Davis {ihnp4, decvax, seismo}!utah-cs!b-davis b-davis@utah-cs.ARPA