[109676] in Cypherpunks
Re: RSA claiming trademark on all uses of "RSA"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Thu Apr 1 10:18:17 1999
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1999 06:22:07 -0500
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net, gnu@toad.com
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Reply-To: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
--- begin forwarded text
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 23:57:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Frank Sudia <aurelius@panix.com>
To: Digital Commerce Society <dcsb@ai.mit.edu>
cc: Burt Kaliski <burt@rsa.com>
Subject: Re: RSA claiming trademark on all uses of "RSA"
Sender: bounce-dcsb@ai.mit.edu
Reply-To: Frank Sudia <aurelius@panix.com>
On Tue, 30 Mar 1999, Robert Hettinga wrote:
> From: John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>
> > Security Dynamics Technologies, Inc. has sent a letter to the P1363
> > working group regarding trademark protection of the RSA name. The
> > letter is now available from our patents page
> > http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/1363/patents.html
> > or directly at
> > http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/1363/letters/SecurityDynamics.jpg
>
> Now that their patent is getting ready to expire (next fall), RSA is
> trying to crack down on anyone who refers to the use of the algorithm
> by calling it "RSA". They don't mind if you call it "type 1" or
> something else meaningless and irrelevant, though. This is a new low
> for a company known for self-serving legal bluster.
I looked at the letter from Security Dynamics, and based on my knowledge
of trademarks, I'd say Gilmore has greatly over reacted.
What S-D is objecting to seems pretty much limited to IEEE's using their
"RSA" trademark in the P1363 standards document itself. I seriously doubt
this would have any impact on RSA licensees (or anyone else) using the
term in their product literature, with the (r) symbol next to it.
Remember that Windows(r) is also trademarked (and therein lies a tale),
but that doesn't stop every software vendor on the planet from saying
their product "works with Windows(r)", so long as you put the (r) there,
and maybe add one of those standard footnotes.
The key thing is you can't use Windows(r) or RSA(r) in your product name.
If S-D were to allow "RSA" to be used in the IEEE standard, they might
lose their rights, since the term RSA would then mean the algo covered by
the standard, not the product shipped by them. It would cease to identify
them as the originator of the goods.
We faced this identical problem a couple of years back in the ANSI X9 /
NIST standards process. After endless political wrangling, I think X9.31
now covers the RSA algorithm as we know it.
However, for the same reasons, we couldn't use the word "RSA" in the title
or body of the standard itself, so yours truly, as my sole contribution to
that process, coined the name RDSA, or if you like, rDSA, which stands for
"reversible digital signature algorithm."
This is the difference between "Kleenex(r)" and "facial tissue" because
you can't use someone's trademark in an official document.
IEEE could, if desired, conform their nomenclature, to keep the number of
pseudo "public document ready" names from growing too large. A quick hit
to the handy US Trademark database:
http://trademarks.uspto.gov/access/search-mark.html
reveals 22 registrations containing RSA, but none for RDSA, and if anyone
tried to register it, ANSI (or anyone else) could probably blow them out
on the grounds it became generic once their standard was published.
DISCLAIMER!: I am not a qualified trademark lawyer. This is not legal
advice. If you need legal assistance, contact a qualified attorney.
Cheers,
Frank
--------------------------------------------------------------
Frank Wells Sudia, Internet Financial PKI Consultant
25 Broad St., Ste 9F, New York, NY 10004 frank@sudia.net
Tel: 212-809-5150 Fax: 212-809-5394 Cell: 917-208-1330
--------------------------------------------------------------
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--- end forwarded text
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
