smb@research.att.com says:

Two lawsuits were recently filed in federal court, northern district of Calif, which may cripple Public Key Partners.

Cylink v. RSA Data Security, C-94-02332-CW, June 30, 1994, San Fran. It alleges that the RSA patent is invalid. RSA Data had denied Cylink a patent license.

This one is really fascinating -- Cylink is one of the owners of PKP, along with RSADSI...

"Owners" is not strictly speaking the case -- they are a partner in PKP. Since the PKP partnership agreement is secret (or at least I am told it is secret), it is impossible to determine precisely what the rules of the partnership are, but I had assumed that free cross licensing had been part of it. I believe that Cylink has used RSA as part of various security products in the past, so they appear to have *HAD* a license. If Bruce has access to the exact language in the suit, it would be of interest to hear what it says. (Since the court papers are all public domain, perhaps a person with a scanner might want to put them on line...) Perry