IDEA Status?

[David Shaw]

On Jun 22, 2010, at 11:25 PM, Robert J. Hansen wrote:

> On 6/22/10 10:39 PM, David Shaw wrote:
>> I'm not sure about the 2007 patent expiration - I recall it being
>> right around now, actually (2010-2011).
> 
> A little digging around revealed the United States patent expiration:
> January 7, 2012.
> 
> I am not a patent attorney, I don't pretend to be an authoritative
> source on patent law.  All we can say definitively is the original
> patent expires January 7, 2012: subsequent patents may have extended
> this date.

So it's still patented, starting to show cracks, and only really used for compatibility with a very deprecated key type and codebase.

It's not even clear where you could get a license if you really had to use IDEA.  The mediacrypt.com site where you can get a license was offline for a long time.  It's back online now (and goes to the Nagra/Kudelski page, which may be amusing to those who used Nagra reel-to-reel tape recorders at one point - odd what companies expand into), but I still see nothing about IDEA licensing.

David