[2082] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
patent office and key recovery
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steve Bellovin)
Mon Jan 26 09:41:57 1998
To: cryptography@c2.net
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 08:38:18 -0500
From: Steve Bellovin <smb@research.att.com>
Today's NY Times had an article on how the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office is gearing up for electronic filing of patent and trademark
applications
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/012698patents.html). Since
patent applications here are confidential, filings must be encrypted.
And of course, one of the things holding up deployment -- of a system
where a government agency is the legitimate recipient of the message --
is the "need" for key recovery.
"The agency wants to include a "key recovery" system in the
software in case the encryption has to be broken."
The mind boggles.
