From: smb@research.att.com
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 06:26:06 PDT
To: Fred Heutte <phred@well.sf.ca.us>
Subject: RRe:  Blasting Bidzos Blather
Message-ID: <9306181326.AA08720@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> > PKP is not going to go away when a few of its patents expire.
> Right.  Contracts and licensing arrangements can last much longer
> than patents.

> That's why it's so important to see the exact details of this latest
> deal and find out why someone in the federal bureaucracy was greasing
> the procurement skids.

I repeat -- NIST had no choice, because PKP held all the patent cards.
Even if you don't believe PKP's claim to all of public-key cryptography,
both the Diffie-Hellman and Schnorr patents would most likely be infringed
by DSA.  You can argue with the specifics of the deal -- and with what
NIST gave away in order to get the Clipper exemption through -- but
they had to reach some settlement.

Btw -- the deal is *not* final; the announcement is just the start of
a 60-day comment period.

		--Steve Bellovin