PKP cryptography members suing each other - DUCK!!!!

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

From: Emanuel Edwin Farber <efarber@iiic.ethz.ch>


Date: Wed, 17 Aug 1994 12:45:54 +0200
> From srctran@world.std.com Wed Aug 17 03:56 MET 1994
> Date: Tue, 16 Aug 1994 21:49:33 -0400
> From: srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian)
> To: patents@world.std.com
> 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
> (for subscription info, send 'help' to   patents@world.std.com)
> (for prior art search services info, send 'prior' to patents@world.std.com)
>