PATNEWS: PKP cryptography members suing each other - DUCK!!!! (fwd)

["Harry S. Hawk" <habs@panix.com>]

a conscious being, Gregory Aharonian wrote:

> From srctran@world.std.com Sat Aug 20 07:08:04 1994
> Subject: PATNEWS:  PKP cryptography members suing each other - DUCK!!!!

    For some time, the US government's plans to come up with a standard for
digital signatures for electronic documents has run into a variety of problems,
one of which is the fact that some of the algorithms the government wants to
use are patented and in private hands, with threats of infringement lawsuits.
In fact, the government recently agreed to pay an MIT professor royalties in
return for use of his patent.

    Other patents involved are held by the consortium Public Key Partners
(PKP) of Sunnyvale, California.  Well as it turns out, members of PKP are now
suing each other (isn't patenting fun :-).  One member, Cylink (Sunnyvale) is
suing another member, RSA Data Security (Redwood City, CA) over RSA's use of
some MIT technology (MIT also being a member of PKP, along with Stanford).
Cylink filed suit in June, and the squabble could lead to the break up of
PKP, which will either simplify or complicate the use of their technology in
the government's DSS digital signature standard.

    Stay tuned.

Greg Aharonian
Internet Patent News Service
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