IDEA patent vs the recent USPTO memorandum

[Joseph Oreste Bruni]

On Wednesday, September 16, 2009, at 12:46PM, "Robert J. Hansen" <rjh at sixdemonbag.org> wrote:
>M.B.Jr. wrote:
>> I've recently had access to this document, written by the "United
>> States Patent and Trademark Office" (USPTO) which basically tries to
>> ban software patents.
>
>The memorandum in question is eight pages, twenty slides and two flowcharts.
>
>As a ballpark estimate that would mean it would take an IP lawyer about
>two days to figure out what this means for the specific subject of
>patented cryptographic algorithms.  It would take the non-experts on
>this list many times that long, if we could do it at all.
>
>There may be patent lawyers on this list who are familiar with the
>memorandum in question who are willing to speak in a public forum about
>it.  Weirder things have happened.  But speaking for myself, I do not
>have the time it takes to (a) become an expert on U.S. patent law, (b)
>read the memorandum, and (c) consider how it changes the U.S. patent
>system, and (d) write up my results.
>
>If this is important to you, I would suggest speaking with an IP lawyer.



Especially for a patent that is due to expire in a year or two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Data_Encryption_Algorithm