In
<CFF17B766475D111B50900204804F0DF6306BB(_at_)rbmail100(_dot_)chamb(_dot_)disa(_dot_)mil>
FLANIGAB(_at_)NCR(_dot_)DISA(_dot_)MIL writes:
This is a very "interesting" question. I've pondered things in this
area myself. I believe the over-riding question, however, is: Does
the IETF have change control here? Anyone know one way or the other?
Whether it does or not, since the intent of the standard is to allow people
to implement it, it would at least seem "neighborly" ;-) to include pointers
to or references regarding the legal issues involved. Perhaps just a note
for each algorithm indicating if there are potential patent issues and if so
the company name/address(URL?) to contact?
Import/export issues are too specific/variable to bother including in the
spec, but I would think that legal/patent issues would affect a majority of
the users/organizations considering implementing the spec.
I was under the impression from reading in Applied Cryptography that there
were at least claims of patents affecting all public-key encryption schemes.?
PKP's patent on Diffie-Hellman (and related claims on ElGamal) expired last
year; any others to worry about?
-Chris Bartram
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