FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

Misc crypto & patent notes

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Mon, 15 Feb 1999 14:18:30 -0800 (PST)
From:          Greg Broiles <gbroiles@netbox.com>
To:            cryptography@c2.net, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject:       Misc crypto & patent notes


While working on another project, I noticed that Tandem (through four
employees) recently received a patent on a variant of public key
crypto which involves the use of three primes and the Chinese
Remainder Theorem - the patent itself is available at
<http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/details?pn=US05848159__>.

Also, Silvo Micali recently received a patent for "traceable anonymous
transaction" which appears to involve identity escrow by a third party
(I haven't had time to dig into this further) - the patent is at
<http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/details?pn=US05812670__>.

I found those while looking through the patents which have issued
which reference the original RSA public key patent (4,405,829) - it's
pretty easy to construct a query to find all of those patents
(currently 140) which might make interesting reading - see
<http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/patlist?&uref_pno=US04405829__>.

Also, someone on sci.crypt noted that a German Enigma machine (minus
the codewheels) was recently sold via eBay; it sold for $7300. See
<http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=64840419>
including a picture and detailed description. The same seller (from
northern NJ) also sold a Swiss copy of Enigma for $2500. The same
buyer - who did not have any previous transactions listed - was the
winning bidder for both machines. I don't get the impression the
seller had any idea that hardware crypto is export controlled, as
(s)he discussed making arrangements for foreign shipment.

--
Greg Broiles
gbroiles@netbox.com