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From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: sci.crypt,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: bizarre question...
Keywords: RSA patent rpem
Message-ID: <14880@ulysses.att.com>
Date: 23 May 91 14:04:00 GMT
References: <1991May16.201709.3086@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> <1991May23.032146.10692@eecs.nwu.edu>
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In article <1991May23.032146.10692@eecs.nwu.edu>, ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu (Patrick A. Townson) writes:
> > Can you prove it to a jury of ignorami?
> 
> I wouldn't have to. Again, in a civil case, BOTH SIDES have to agree
> on having a bench trial or jury trial .

I'm not a lawyer, but...  Here's the wording of the 7th Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution:

	In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed
	twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no
	fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the
	United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Since patents are a matter of Federal law, this amendment presumably applies.
(Besides, in my discussions with a patent lawyer he repeatedly stressed
that it could be a jury trial if it ever came to that.)