At 08:51 PM 10/2/98 -0700, Blake Ramsdell wrote:
The "unknown" nature of any patents regarding the ES variant is somewhat
troubling, but will potentially iron itself out during this decision
process. Unfortunately, the penalty for not coming forward right now is
minor (black-balled in the IETF), so just because no one comes forward
right now doesn't mean that no one ever will. The known nature of SS
patents is more encouraging in this regard.
To be clear, we have one data point for SS and zero data points for ES, out
of an unknown number of data points. That is, we don't know diddly, and we
can't, because no one is forced to come forwards (Certicom was nice enough
to). On the other hand, if we choose ES, as the OpenPGP people have, we
have the slight advantage that someone watching should have seen the
OpenPGP people choosing this about nine months before S/MIME did. That
means they would have had to be purposely nasty for longer to withold notice.
--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium