-- From: Charlie Kaufman

The right question is whether there is any strong password protocol - either known or that you invent yourself - that you can implement without fear of being sued for patent infringement.

And the answer is no.

One cannot scratch one's bum without fear of being sued for patent infringment. The wheel, and a common story line in novels, were recently patented.Why should strong passwrod protocols be different?

Patent claims, like the U.S. Constitution, mean whatever the courts decide they mean. The only way to have confidence that you won't be sued for implementing any technology is to observe that lots of other people in similar situations to yours are doing it and not being sued.

But in practice, patent claims are seldom resolved in court.

I am not aware of anyone who is publicly shipping - either in a commercial product or as open source - an implementation of a strong password protocol without having paid protection money to either Lucent or Phoenix (or both). It would be great if someone would.

It seems to me that this is more a matter of normal deployment delays, than widespread fear of patents. With early deployments, it is far from clear whether those paying are paying for patent licenses, or paying for sofware and expertise. Over time, in any given software technology, the cost of software and expertise tends to fall, eventually to near zero. At that point, it then becomes apparent how seriously people take any patent claims. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG 9oJtLl3PEvVntjE5/K1vIF9Nnar6OLl18dHQ2cU4 4C4BOaRXcQbMfkkZ71fBvjkaLgW5k/pOu1ch7sPQc