Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version VT1.00C 11/1/84; site vortex.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!talcott!panda!genrad!decvax!vortex!lauren
From: lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein)
Newsgroups: net.crypt
Subject: Re: RSA cryptographic algorithm patented?
Message-ID: <718@vortex.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Jul-85 12:29:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: vortex.718
Posted: Tue Jul 23 12:29:39 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Jul-85 20:52:57 EDT
References: <1975@ukma.UUCP>
Organization: Vortex Technology, Los Angeles
Lines: 29

Who says you can't patent ideas?  Go down to the local library and
look through the patent books.  You'll find that algorithms of different
sorts are frequently granted patents.  Mathematical patents have been
granted in the past, as have process patents (for example, an idea for
a formula for a new drug).  I don't think the patent office sees any
fundamental difference between a formula for a new drug (which may be
actually produced as a physical thing in many different ways) and a
mathematical formula (which may be implemented in different manners and
used for different things).  I also don't believe there's anything that
says that you can go ahead and use the patent for non-profit sorts of
things without paying--that's presumed to infringe on the rights of the
patent holder (unless the holder grants you a cost-free license).

In the specific question of RSA--the issue is what exactly was 
patented--a particular implementation or the general concept?
It might have been both.

Someone asked why IBM didn't patent DES.  As I understand it, there
are several reasons.  One is that IBM alone apparently didn't hold
all the rights.  Another is that to file patents you usually have to
explain the underpinning rationale of the procedure, which has never
been openly published for the magic DES matrix boxes (as far as I know).
Thirdly, there was no point to a patent since the idea was for it
to become a federal standard and be widely used by business.

Go down to the library sometime and look through the patent books.  You
may find the sorts of things that have been patented very interesting.

--Lauren--