🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <bontchev.726158979@fbihh> bontchev@fbihh.informatik.uni-hamburg.de writes:

>> How can someone (PKP) patent a mathematical algorithm?
>
>Well, they do not have patented the mathematical algorithm. They have
>pathented the usage of certain mathematical operation to implement a
>communication system. That is, anybody is free to use modular
>arithmetic in general, but usage of modular arithmetic for encrypted
>and/or authenticated communication is patented.

This sounds far too broad.  I would guess it's far more specific--somewhere
along the lines of use of modular exponentiation with a modulus
consisting of the product of two primes for cryptographic purposes.

Modular arithmetic was not at all new to cryptography when RSA was
developed, so the patent would *have* to be much narrower than just that.


-- 
J. S. Greenfield                                         greeny@top.cis.syr.edu
(I like to put 'greeny' here, 
but my d*mn system wants a 
*real* name!)                        "What's the difference between an orange?"