Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: "Robin H. Johnson" <robbat2@g.o>
To: Ulrich Mueller <ulm@g.o>
Cc: "Robin H. Johnson" <robbat2@g.o>, gentoo-dev@l.g.o, licenses@g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Guidance on distributed patented software
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2021 19:21:00
Message-Id: robbat2-20210920T190303-849066784Z@orbis-terrarum.net
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] Guidance on distributed patented software by Ulrich Mueller
1 On Mon, Sep 20, 2021 at 08:41:21PM +0200, Ulrich Mueller wrote:
2 > >>>>> On Mon, 20 Sep 2021, Robin H Johnson wrote:
3 >
4 > > RedHat's legal team clearly know something there that they aren't
5 > > disclosing the details of publicly, because the patches said the
6 > > patents expire in 2020, but when I asked off-list if EC could be
7 > > re-enabled based on the expiry dates in the files, they claimed that
8 > > patent issues were still present, without giving any detail.
9 >
10 > If there are remaining patent issues then they should be able to support
11 > their claim by facts, like a patent number. Why would this be difficult,
12 > or what reason would they have not to disclose it?
13 I don't have any answer from them, but my own research did turn up a few
14 current patents around EC (sorted by expiry):
15
16 US8462944B2 exp 2021-12-26
17 US8189772B2 exp 2023-05-28
18 US9160530B2 exp 2024-10-28
19 US8213605B2 exp 2025-11-14
20 US10756893B2 exp 2026-01-23
21 US10284370B2 exp 2026-03-03
22 US20100023775A1 exp 2031-08-02
23 US8631240B2 exp 2031-08-02
24 US8572367B2 exp 2031-12-25
25 US8918648B2 exp 2032-01-31
26 US10079673B2 exp 2032-02-15 ** not specifically EC, more general about Entropy
27 US9800418B2 exp 2035-07-17
28
29 IANAL, but the difficult question is: does any open-source end up
30 implementing those algorithms?
31
32 --
33 Robin Hugh Johnson
34 Gentoo Linux: Dev, Infra Lead, Foundation Treasurer
35 E-Mail : robbat2@g.o
36 GnuPG FP : 11ACBA4F 4778E3F6 E4EDF38E B27B944E 34884E85
37 GnuPG FP : 7D0B3CEB E9B85B1F 825BCECF EE05E6F6 A48F6136

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