🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <12@nl.cs.cmu.edu> mlm@nl.cs.cmu.edu (Michael Mauldin) writes:
>
>I have heard Michael Shamos of Unilogic (who is both a practicing
>attorney and a PhD in Computer Science) lecture on copyrights, patents,
>trade secrets and trademarks on several occasions.  Each time, he has
>said that one cannot patent algorithms (at least in the US).  There is
>an exclusion clause that says you cannot patent something that can be
>done "with pencil and paper," so algorithms by themselves are not
>protectable.
>
>One way around this is to patent a system with an algorithm embedded in
>it.  The system then enjoys patent protection.  So ROM code in firmware
>is protected along with the rest of the device using it.
>
>How does this relate to the legal status of RSA?  Is it just Rivest's
>special purpose chip that is patented?  A particular setting of some of
>the parameters?  Or are all exponentiation ciphers (M^e mod pq) protected?
I believe that the use of RSA in a "cryptographics communications system"
is patented.  Unfortunately this seems to cover most of the
normal applications in which RSA is useful. (encrypting a message, 
transmitting it to someone, and decrypting it.)  I'd appreciate it if someone
could post the specifics (ie definition of a cryptographics commuications 
system, etc.)


-- 
					- Ralph W. Hyre, Jr.

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