*BSD News Article 5815


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From: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Subject: Re: Patents:  What they are.  What they aren't.  Other factors.
In-Reply-To: brnstnd@nyu.edu (D. J. Bernstein)
Message-ID: <1992Sep30.122225.12768@nntp.hut.fi>
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Nntp-Posting-Host: laphroaig.cs.hut.fi
Reply-To: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
References: <1992Sep28.202521.28752@rwwa.COM> <1992Sep28.231823.8385@pony.Ingres.COM> <WCS.92Sep29233331@budweiser.ATT.COM> <10987.Sep3008.57.4692@virtualnews.nyu.edu>
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 12:22:25 GMT
Lines: 15

>We do! History shows that in the case of RSA the inventors published
>their invention _without_ help from the patent process. Facts:
>
>1. Martin Gardner published RSA in the August 1977 Scientific American.
>
>2. The RSA patent was not filed until December 1977.
>
>By waiting until December 1977 to file a patent, MIT lost any chance it
>might have had for foreign patent rights.

I think it was clearly a catch-22 for them.  If they had _not_
published prior to applying, what chances are there that the patent
would not have been declared secret?

//Jyrki