[Security_sig] 02/03 Conf. call minutes

Gé Weijers Ge.Weijers at Sun.COM
Thu Feb 3 10:55:15 PST 2005


Stephen Smalley wrote:

>On Thu, 2005-02-03 at 13:05, Chris Wright wrote:
>  
>
>>Ge:  Another concern is around patent issue with secure computing.
>>Letter states that patent grant is null if patent is sold.  Should
>>probably be reviewed by your lawyers.
>>    
>>
>
>FYI:
>
>NSA's statements on the issue:
>http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/info/faq.cfm#I22
>http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=104506496507929&w=2
>  
>
The language that worried me is in
http://www.securecomputing.com/pdf/Statement_of_Assurance.pdf

See the "no third party restrictions" section, last sentence.

>Also, 4,621,321 and 4,701,840 were slated to expire Nov 4, 2003 (the
>latter was a continuation of the former, and explicitly disclaimed the
>portion of the term after Nov 4, 2003), and I think 4,713,753 expired at
>the end of last year.
>  
>
The rule for patents filed before June 8 1995 is that the patent expires 
either 20 years from the filing date, or 17 years from the issue date. 
The filing date was Feb.  21 1985, issue date Dec. 15 1987.

My point will be moot in 18 days :-)

Ge'


-- 
Gé Weijers                          mailto:ge.weijers at sun.com
Linux Software Engineering          Direct/Fax: (877)240-7611
Sun Microsystems, Inc.              x69536 (Sun)
=== Expressed opinions are my own, I do not speak for Sun ===




More information about the security_sig mailing list