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Re: RSA claiming trademark on all uses of "RSA" to describealgor ithm



I council calm here. Using my MIT hat, I have asked some questions internally
about whether or not RSADSI can make such a claim. Personally I want to see what
answer I get before I go off and come up with another name...

                -Jeff

Will Price wrote:

> Waiting until this becomes a critical problem for all implementors does
> not seem a prudent course of action.  The list has been shown documented
> proof that RSADSI is initiating legal proceedings against those who use
> the name of its algorithm.  Just because RSADSI may for the time being
> politely overlook the IETF does not mean that this issue is not important
> now.  In September of 2000 when no one needs a license for the algorithm
> formerly known as "RSA", all of the implementors on this list will be in a
> serious legal bind if the products have not already been modified for
> this.  This means we need probably 6 months to get the change into the
> drafts, and at *least* 6 months to hit everyone's product release cycles.
> I think the evidence we have been shown is clearly enough cause for us to
> rename the algorithm here so that all implementors can use a common reference.
>
> I don't think there is any one sacred name any of us would like to choose,
> so I wonder if someone on the list would be willing to setup a web page
> with a poll question on this giving perhaps the top ten choices and then
> narrowing to the top 5 to select the name.  The name with the most votes wins.
>
> Paul Hoffman wrote:
> >
> > I suggest that we wait until RSA sends a letter to the IETF or to
> > individual IPsec implementors about this.
> >
> > --Paul Hoffman, Director
> > --VPN Consortium



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