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Software encryption patent incites controversy ...

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From: "Elyn Wollensky" <elyn@consect.com> To: <cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com> Subject: CDR: Software encryption patent incites controversy ... Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 15:27:55 -0500

Sorry this is so long (I don't have a link) - but this is definitely worth a read-through when you have a few minutes. -elyn -------

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA., April 2, 2002 - A company that in February 2001 obtained a patent to encryption technologies is now harassing other publishers of security software, demanding that they cough up licensing fees for products published years before the patent application was filed.

Maz Technologies Inc., http://www.maztechnology.com, Irvine, CA, is demanding at least $25,000 from PC Dynamics, http://www.pcdynamics.com. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issued patent 6,185,681 to Maz on February 6, 2001. The patent claims to cover all application- independent or transparent encryption technologies.

"The patent is a mistake, and should never have been awarded," said Bruce Schneier, internationally-renowned security technologist, author, founder and chief technical officer of Counterpane Internet Security Inc. Schneier is the inventor of the Blowfish encryption algorithm and Twofish, a finalist for the new Federal Advanced Encryption Standard. In 2001, he testified on computer security to the U.S. Senate's Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space.

"The Cryptographic File System, written and made available in 1993, does the same thing. I expect this thing to be overturned quickly -- it's idiotic. It's abuses of the patent system like this that make it difficult for legitimate companies to develop and market technology products," said Schneier.

"This is an absurd claim," said Peter Avritch, president of PC Dynamics, which publishes a virtual disk encryption product for Windows called SafeHouse. The company first introduced SafeHouse in 1994. In turn, SafeHouse draws on transparent encryption technologies that PC Dynamics earlier included in MenuWorks Total Security, first published in 1991, seven years before the patent application was filed.

"The demand from Maz is based on a patent application filed in 1998, long after the widespread use of hard drive encryption. That application somehow failed to discover and identify a huge body of 'prior art' that included existing encryption products, even encryption products used for decades by the U.S. government - which the PTO also somehow failed to research before it approved the patent. Clearly, the PTO needs to re-examine and invalidate this patent.

"Further, did Maz willfully file a false claim of intellectual property? Under a 'Walker Process' antitrust counterclaim, a company can seek treble damages from a patent holder if the patent holder willfully defrauded the PTO -- in this case, by not referencing the abundance of like-acting software already available at the time the patent application was filed," said Avritch.

Koppel, Jacobs, Patrick & Heybel, the law firm for Maz Technologies, also offered a claim chart and license to Envoy Data, http://www.envoydata.com, Tempe, AZ. Envoy resells SafeHouse and publishes its own encryption and security products.

"It's ironic that Richard Koppel, senior partner of the firm, personally filed the original trademark applications for MenuWorks in 1987," said Avritch. "Now his firm is targeting a former client."

"It's also ironic that we've been through this before," said Avritch. "In the early 1990s, PC Dynamics published the Energizer Bunny Screen Saver. In 1994, the company was targeted as the first test of a patent claiming rights to nearly all advertising or corporate logos appearing in software products. Coverage of the patent fight triggered Bruce Lehman, then Commissioner of Patents for the PTO, to order a re-examination and invalidation of the patent, 5,105,184."

The licensing demands have spurred other developers and vendors of encryption products to volunteer as expert witnesses and offer 'prior art' that invalidates the patent, including:

* Phil Zimmermann is the inventor of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), the most widely-used email encryption software in the world. Zimmermann founded PGP Inc. which was later acquired by Network Associates Inc. "Does the lack of reference to obvious and well-known prior art products indicate an ignorance on the part of the patent applicant or a deliberate attempt to exclude those products from consideration as prior art by the Patent & Trademark Office? This illustrates a festering problem at the PTO with how patents get issued. This patent cannot be allowed to stand," said Zimmermann.

* Glenn Everhart has written security-related software since the 1970s. In 1978, 20 years before the Maz application was filed, he authored a virtual encrypted disk system for the RSX11D from Digital Equipment Corp. He has placed his work into the public domain and allowed the source code and documentation to be distributed freely in Internet-based software collections. "It annoys me that some Johnny-come-latelies get a patent on it," said Everhart.

* "Maz Technologies is holding the security industry hostage," said Jean-Luc Cooke, chief scientist and co- founder of CertainKey Inc. "Patenting a novel padlock design is sensible. Patenting the use of a padlock to protect a filing cabinet versus a garage door makes no sense whatsoever. There is nothing 'novel' about such a patent. Clearly, its purpose is not to protect innovation, but to stifle it for monetary gain."

* "It's hard to imagine how the claims in this patent got approved," said Matt Blaze, a research scientist in computer security and cryptography at AT&T Labs. "Transparent, automatic file encryption has been widely known and published -- even taught to students -- for at least a decade. In fact, I described many of the techniques claimed in this patent in a published paper on the CFS encrypting file system back in 1993 -- five years ahead of the MAZ patent application."

* Krag Brotby is a member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, program director for the California High Tech Task Force steering committee and a member of the High Tech Criminal Investigators Association. In the 1980s, more than a decade before the Maz application was filed, Brotby was president of Vault Corp., which created FILELOK, a product that combined media fingerprinting technology with transparent file encryption. He obtained patents for the fingerprinting technologies, "but we chose to not apply for patents on transparent encryption because it was not novel then and it certainly is not novel now."

* Noah Groth, president of PC Guardian, http://www.pcguardian.com, San Rafael, CA, has been developing data protection software since 1993. His company's Encryption Plus(r) Hard Disk is developed around Schneier's Blowfish algorithm. "Transparent, on-the-fly encryption has been around for some time," said Groth. "The technology is widely documented, and the documentation is relatively easy to obtain. All Maz Technologies has done with its patent is to sully the reputation of the Patent and Trademark Office by not bringing this documentation to the attention of the PTO staff." Groth said that the law firm for Maz Technologies also offered to PC Guardian a claim chart and license.

PC Dynamics, http://www.pcdynamics.com, Westlake Village, CA., publishes SafeHouse and My Corkboard. The company offers the software programs to users via download from the company's Web site, to corporations via site licenses, and to OEMs under private labels.

Contacts:

Peter Avritch, mailto:pavritch@pcdynamics.com, 818-889-1741 Matt Blaze, mailto:mab@research.att.com, 973-360-8352 Krag Brotby, mailto:kbrotby@cinenet.net, 310-827-6606 Jean-Luc Cooke, mailto:jlcooke@certainkey.com, 613-263-2983 Glenn Everhart, mailto:everhart@gce.com, 302-659-0460 Noah Groth, mailto:ngroth@pcguardian.com, 415-459-0190 Bruce Schneier, mailto:schneier@counterpane.com, 408-777-3612 Phil Zimmermann, mailto:prz@mit.edu, 650-322-7377 US Patent & Trademark Office, 800-786-9199 or 703-308-4357

Attorneys for Maz Technologies Inc.

Steven C. Sereboff, mailto:ssereboff@koppelpatent.com Richard Koppel, mailto:rkoppel@koppelpatent 805-373-0060

Click here for links to full text of the patent, background information, correspondence and other documents: http://www.pcdynamics.com/patent

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