InformationWeek

RSA, Feds In Digital Signature Fight

Security software maker asserts ownership of key technology patent

By Jill Gambon
Issue date: Nov. 13, 1995

RSA Data Security Inc., which specializes in encryption software, is escalating its fight with the U.S. government over patent rights covering digital signature technology.

The government has a digital signature algorithm patent that it says covers the technology used in the digital signature standard (DSS) to authenticate codes that identify individuals or businesses. The government has made the algorithm available to the pu blic for free.

"We feel very strongly [that] we've taken the correct position," says Michael Rubin, deputy chief counsel for the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Washington, the agency handling the case.

But RSA, which has been fighting government export restriction policies that limit the encryption products it can sell overseas, sees things differently. The Redwood City, Calif., company contends that it owns the dominant patent covering digital signature technology, and that technology must be licensed by companies and government agencies that want to use DSS.

Negotiations are ongoing, but RSA legal affairs director Paul Livesay says the government has a lot to lose. Because RSA's patent did not result from government-funded research, federal agencies would have to pay RSA royalties to use DSS. The company is just trying to get its due, Livesay says.

The U.S. Postal Service is developing a digital signature service that is expected to become available next year. If RSA's po sition is upheld, the Postal Service may have to charge higher prices than planned, although any increase would be "minor," says Richard Rothwell, senior director of technology integration for the Postal Service.

One observer says more may be at stake for RSA president Jim Bidzos than intellectual property rights. "RSA is trying to turn the tables," says Charles Merrill, a lawyer who heads the computer and high-technology practice for the McCarter & English law firm in Newark, N.J. "It must be fun for [Bidzos] to jerk the government's chain."

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