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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-lcc!ptsfa!well!rab
From: rab@well.UUCP (Bob Bickford)
Newsgroups: sci.crypt
Subject: Re: encryption with public keys (being patented)
Message-ID: <2264@well.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 27-Dec-86 06:35:25 EST
Article-I.D.: well.2264
Posted: Sat Dec 27 06:35:25 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Dec-86 20:37:51 EST
References: <3072@ihuxf.UUCP> <9001@duke.duke.UUCP> <7447@utzoo.UUCP> <112@uw-apl.UUCP>
Organization: Whole Earth Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 19
Summary: patents worthless

In article <112@uw-apl.UUCP>, srg@uw-apl.UUCP (Spencer Garrett) writes:
> 
> The patent office will issue a patent on just about ANYTHING.  They seem to
> expect the courts to sort it all out.  Recently an engineer I know managed to
> get a patent for what he thought was a novel encoding technique.  This merely
> illustrates how out-of-touch both he and the patent office are.  The rest of
> us have been calling his novel approach FM0 for at least 15 years.

   Sounds familiar.   On a related point, you should know that no patent
law can prevent you, as an individual, from building and using one of
ANYTHING for your own intellectual amusement and/or enjoyment.

-- 
Robert Bickford    {hplabs, ucbvax, lll-lcc, ptsfa, msudoc}!well!rab
terrorist cryptography DES drugs cipher secret decode NSA CIA NRO IRS
coke crack pot LSD russian missile atom nuclear assassinate libyan RSA
 The above is food for the NSA line eater.  Add it to your .signature and
 you too can help overflow the NSA's ability to scan all traffic going in or
 out of the USA looking for "significant" words.  (This is not a joke, sadly.)