KFL@mit-ai.arpa (Keith F. Lynch) (03/25/86)
From: James Ellis <jte%mcnc.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
The RSA algorithm, at least, is not in the public domain.
In fact, it is covered by U.S. Patent #4,405,829 issued Sept. 20, 1983.
How can this be? It is my understanding that one cannot patent
anything more than a year after it is first publically demonstrated or
published. I read a description of the RSA algorithm in 1975, in
Scientific American.
...Keith