[4213] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Misc crypto & patent notes
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Greg Broiles)
Mon Feb 15 18:05:42 1999
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 14:18:30 -0800 (PST)
From: Greg Broiles <gbroiles@netbox.com>
To: cryptography@c2.net, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
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
