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Cylink

WSJ, Sept 19, 1995.

Cylink Claims Right To Key Technology Involving
Encryption


Sunnyvale, Calif. - A Silicon Valley company asserted a
legal claim to a key technology for protecting electronic
commerce, following an arbitration ruling.

Closely held Cylink Corp. said the ruling gave back to
the company control over two key Stanford University
patents regarding public-key encryption, a technique for
scrambling data from theft or eavesdropping. A panel of
three arbitrators, asked to settle a dispute between
Cylink and RSA Data Security Inc., dissolved a five-year
partnership between the two that pooled their encryption
patents.

RSA, a closely held company based in Redwood City,
Calif., is the dominant supplier of encryption software,
with users that include Microsoft Corp., Novell Inc.,
Netscape Communications Corp., Apple Computer Inc. and
International Business Machines Corp. The arbitrators
ruled that RSA hasn't had the right to sublicense the
Stanford patents since 1990.

Cylink said it would seek royalties from companies that
have licensed software code from RSA and are
redistributing it, arguing that they are infringing the
Stanford patents.

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