MCGREW@RED.RUTGERS.EDU (Charles) (07/01/86)
Return-Path: <@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU:KFL%MX.LCS.MIT.EDU@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU> Date: Mon, 2 Jun 86 20:59:01 EDT From: "Keith F. Lynch" <KFL%MX.LCS.MIT.EDU@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU> Subject: RSA To: waters%viking.DEC@DECWRL.DEC.COM Date: Monday, 5 May 1986 05:21:51-PDT From: waters%viking.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM Several issues ago in HUMAN-NETS Digest, someone wondered how RSA could be patented more than a year after its first publication in a 1975 issue of Scientific American. Could this person please step forward with a specific article reference if possible? I looked through all 1975 Scientific Americans to no avail. Thanks. My apologies. A few days after that misguided posting, I discovered that I was thinking of the Mathematical Games column in the August 1977 issue. There is also an article "The Mathematics of Public Key Cryptography" by Martin Hellman in the August 1979 issue. The explanation of the patent appears to be that it was applied for in 1977 but not granted until 1983. I am not sure of this, but I have heard it from several sources. ...Keith -------