Re: Permanent Privacy - Are Snake Oil Patents a threat?
On Wed, 2008-07-09 at 13:02 +1200, David G. Koontz wrote: I did a quick check to look for patent applications or patents by them and didn't find any. This isn't definitive if a patent application isn't published. The newest published patent application I found on encryption had an application date of 11 Dec 2007. Some recently published patent applications are 6 or 7 years old, too. This is the patent you're searching for: Secure encryption system, device and method - Patent 20060193472 -- Brecht Wyseur Katholieke Universiteit Leuven tel. +32 16 32 17 21 Dept. Electrical Engineering-ESAT / COSIC fax. +32 16 32 19 69 Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, B-3001 Leuven-Heverlee, BELGIUM office 01.53 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~bwyseur P=NP if (P=0 or N=1) GPG Pub key: https://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~bwyseur/pubkey GPG Fingerprint: 890C 7C0B F1D9 597E F205 87C8 B716 D7D3 20F8 353F Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm - The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Permanent Privacy - Are Snake Oil Patents a threat?
Ali, Saqib wrote: Quoting the Foxbusiness article: Permanent Privacy (patent pending) has been verified by Peter Schweitzer, one of Harvard's top cryptanalysts, and for the inevitable cynics Permanent Privacy is offering $1,000,000 to anyone who can decipher a sample of ciphertext. I did a quick check to look for patent applications or patents by them and didn't find any. This isn't definitive if a patent application isn't published. The newest published patent application I found on encryption had an application date of 11 Dec 2007. Some recently published patent applications are 6 or 7 years old, too. While there I updated my periodic search for recent patents and applications on cryptography. It's surprising the number of questionable patent applications and patents you can find. Aside from propping up marketing claims with patents as has been done throughout history, the primary threat poor quality patents present is the ability of patent trolls to tax 'innovation'. The volume of crypto related patents and applications is increasing lately and there is no clear sign the quality is rising. Crypto patents used to be primarily a competition method between defense contractors, now its just about everyone as use expands. There was one recent application from a chip company on an architecture and instruction set for implementing the Advanced Encryption Standard , where the architecture is that of a modern processor and the instruction set isn't covered in the claims, rather a description of the algorithm for executing AES is given. While it would be well suited for a defensive patent portfolio, imagine the havoc if granted and this patent were to fall into the hands of a patent troll claiming it covered all implementations on a processor. Being a bit of a hardware wonk, a lot of these patents appear obvious. For instance Rainbow inherited a patent on the use of dual rank shift registers to allow overlapping data I/O and cryptographic operations. It does perform the useful function of bringing down the clock rate needed to sustain some throughput, but it was hardly a non-obvious innovation at the time it was filed. Rate buffers had been used as long before the patent was filed to balance communications throughput. I also recall one on MIMD execution of DES to increase throughput, hardly non-obvious though granted. Obviously patents could be improved by searching further across disciplines for prior art and by having more USPTO expertise. We're also seeing a dumbing down of the 'Persons Having Ordinary Skill In the Art' as the number of practitioners expand rapidly. Has anyone been feeling the heat or see a future threat? - The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Permanent Privacy - Are Snake Oil Patents a threat?
| ...Obviously patents could be improved by searching further across | disciplines for prior art and by having more USPTO expertise. We're | also seeing a dumbing down of the 'Persons Having Ordinary Skill In | the Art' as the number of practitioners expand rapidly. Patent law and its interpretation - like all law - changes over time. Through much of the early twentieth century, patent law was strongly biased in favor of large companies. A small inventor couldn't get any effective quick relief against even obvious infringements - he had to fight a long, drawn-out battle, at the end of which he probably didn't end up with much anyway. In reaction to such famous cases as the much-infringed patent on FM radio, the law was changed and reinterpreted in ways that gave the small inventor much more power. Unfortunately, patent trolls eventually made use of those same changes The last couple of decades have seen a series of cases that effectively gutted the entire notion of obvious to persons having ordinary skills in the art. As often happens with trends like this, if you look back at the early cases that started the trend, the results may seem reasonable - but over time, the whole thing gets out of control. The Supreme Court, in a decision last year (the name and details of which escape me), pretty much said This has gone too far. Specific- ally, they said that applying a technique that is well known in one area to another area may well be obvious and not eligible for patent protection. The Supreme Court can only decide on cases brought before it, but the feeling seems to be that they are signaling a readiness to breath new life into the non-obviousness requirement for a patent. It'll be years before we see exactly how this all settles out. -- Jerry - The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe cryptography to [EMAIL PROTECTED]