RC4 compatibility testing

Perry E. Metzger perry at imsi.com
Wed Sep 14 14:00:16 PDT 1994



Brad Huntting says:
> Since RC4 is not patented, I could make a product out of this code.

Yes.

> And then latter if it was patented I would be exempt from paying
> royalties on my product, no?

Ahem.

If an invention is successfully patented, any use you make of it
requires royalties even if that use began before the patent was
granted.

However, RC4 is probably not patentable at this point -- unless Bidzos
has a "submarine patent" in process, which I wouldn't put past him.

Perry






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