Derek Zahn says:
I was under the impression that many people participated in the development of P.K.Crypto... how can somebody patent all of their work?
Three people essentially were involved -- Diffie, Helman, and Merkle. Two of them (I forgot which) filed a patent on the idea itself.
Don't these kind of patents apply only to specific algorithms?
It can be easily argued that at the time the patent was filed algorithm patents were impermissable, and it can also be argued that the patent was overbroad. However, no one has ever tried to challenge the patent properly. It would be a very expensive proposition.
* in broad terms, what would I have to do to develop an algorithm that works from a user's perspective like p.k.c. (ie public/private keys, the central functional point of all the wonderful schemes based on pkc) but doesn't violate patents?
My interpretation is that there isn't anything you could do that wouldn't be seen to violate the patents. Personally, I feel the patents are invalid. Care to donate enough money to challenge them? Perry