Reading the latest Foresight Update articles in the sci.nanotech newsgroup, I came upon an analysis of upcoming changes to the patent laws. With the signing of the GATT treaty the laws will change next year. here is one of the changes, quoting from the article: Infringement. Present U.S. patent law grants to a patent holder the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the patented invention in the United States. After about January 1, 1996, a patent holder has the right to exclude others also from offering for sale patented products or products made using a patented process. Thus, under the law as amended, the mere offer for sale of a patented product may be treated as an infringing act. In addition, it will be illegal to import a product covered by a U.S. patent. At first I thought this would not have much impact on crypto software, which is of course heavily patented. The current laws already prevent people from making, using, or selling software which uses patented algorithms. The new restrictions on products made using a patented process would not seem to be relevant. But there is a possible interpretation which would be very significant. What if data which has had cryptographic transformations applied were viewed as a product of a possibly patented process? An RSA-signed or -encrypted message might then be such a product. A blinded coin or other credential, a key signature or certificate, virtually all of the things we are interested in could be thought of in those terms. We have occasionally discussed setting up offshore servers and such to perform patented cryptographic algorithms. But if the resulting data is itself illegal to import, that would make this strategy much more difficult. Would it become illegal to "import" messages from non-RSAREF versions of PGP, or to hand someone a Chaum-type cash token issued by an offshore bank in a jurisdiction where his patents don't apply? I wonder if the lawyers on the list have any thoughts about whether such an interpretation of the GATT rules is likely to stand. Hal