From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis@freegate.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 08:02:57 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: L5 algorithm patent, and free eval version
In-Reply-To: <199812022046.VAA14983@replay.com>
Message-ID: <4.1.19981202152724.00a17ea0@mailhost.hq.freegate.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 09:46 PM 12/2/98 +0100, Anonymous wrote:
>Now that L5 has been patented, will you and your colleagues at Jaws
>Technology make the L5 algorithm details available to the professional
>cryptography community for independant verification. Could you also
>provide the Canadian and/or US patent numbers?

L5 has NOT been patented. The company simply announced it had been
"accepted" which is in itself a non-sequitor since patents aren't
"accepted." My guess is that the patent was filled and the application was
"allowed." This means that the information in the patent has passed the
examiner's preliminary examination for fitness (which is to say it isn't
one of the things that are disallowed by the patent office.) This actually
doesn't mean SQUAT since thousands of patents get "allowed" and then
"returned" because they don't meet more stringent tests such as
non-obviousness, do what the claims say they do, restate prior art, etc,
etc. However I do believe that disclosure at this point would be premature
because some of the things that examiner may ask may require the patent be
rewritten substantially. 

--Chuck