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Xref: sserve comp.org.eff.talk:9211 misc.int-property:554 comp.unix.bsd:5863 Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,misc.int-property,comp.unix.bsd,alt.suit.att-bsdi Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!ajk.tele.fi!funic!nntp.hut.fi!usenet 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> Sender: usenet@nntp.hut.fi (Usenet pseudouser id) 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