RE: Digicash Patents
Tim wrote: Some people expected a land rush when the main RSA patents expired several years ago. Parties were even thrown. The land rush never happened. Just a reminder that there will be a Blind Signature Patent Expiry party at my place the Saturday before the blind signature patent expires. (The patent expires on a Tuesday. I called dibs on that party years ago). --Lucky
Re: Digicash Patents, patent-expiry landrushes
At 11:34 AM 7/31/03 -0700, Tim May wrote: Some people expected a land rush when the main RSA patents expired several years ago. Parties were even thrown. The land rush never happened. Wrong. RSA algorithm is used freely now in US designs, knowing it is no longer patented. I didn't go to any party, but I flipped a bit in my cranial store indicating that it could be used freely. And this is/was critical, because whereas a block cipher (eg IDEA) can be replaced, RSA can't in some apps. As someone currently rolling his own RSA by setting up the bignums in C, it is a relief to be free of patent issues. I don't believe this would have been the case before the expiry. (This is for embedded devices, I'm not reinventing a protocol wheel.) I'll predict a similarly invisible land rush when ECC patents run out, assuming that its patented and also considered useful when the supposed patents expire.
Re: Digicash Patents, patent-expiry landrushes
On Fri, 1 Aug 2003, Major Variola (ret) wrote: I'll predict a similarly invisible land rush when ECC patents run out, assuming that its patented and also considered useful when the supposed patents expire. the major one is hardware, and it expires in april 2005. A minor one is MQV, and it expires soon after. Otherwise, there's not that many patents on ECC. No need to, people keep finding faster ways of doing things and publishing it :-) Patience, persistence, truth, Dr. mike
Re: Digicash Patents
On Thursday, July 31, 2003, at 10:44 AM, R. A. Hettinga wrote: Since lots of the important bits are supposed to expire next year, the patents may or may not be useful. On the other hand, if they can be gotten clear, someone could get a running start, I suppose, especially if they made a partnership deal with First Data of some kind, and, if First Data was active in that partnership, leveraging their other connections in the funds-transfer business, that could be interesting. On the other other hand, :-), it's entirely clear that people could be developing code right now in anticipation of the patent expiration and go live with some kind of land rush when it's possible to do so. Some people expected a land rush when the main RSA patents expired several years ago. Parties were even thrown. The land rush never happened. --Tim May The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. --John Stuart Mill
RE: Digicash Patents
On the other other hand, :-), it's entirely clear that people could be developing code right now in anticipation of the patent expiration and go live with some kind of land rush when it's possible to do so. Some people expected a land rush when the main RSA patents expired several years ago. Parties were even thrown. The land rush never happened. --Tim May True, but look at bitpass.com. $1.5 million in capital for a micropayments system with no innovations that amounts to... a stunted version of Paypal? The beauty of a marketplace is that many different parties get to try every which way of satisfying a need. Most will fail. Even the first several attempts can fail, disguising a real opportunity as a guaranteed failure. Patrick lucrative.thirdhost.com
