Patents were originally intended, and are usually used (for better or for worse), as a mechanism for protecting inventors and their licensees from competition. But I've noticed a couple of areas where patents are also used as a security mechanism, aiming to prevent the unauthorized production of products that might threaten some aspect of a system's security.
One example close to home is the DVD patents, which, in addition to providing income for the DVD patent holders, also allows them to prevent the production of players that don't meet certain requirements. This effectively reduces the availability of multi-region players; the patents protect the security of the region coding system. Another example I've found is in the world of mechanical locks, where one of the biggest security threats to users comes from the unauthorized duplication of keys. High-security lock manufacturers try to create key designs that are novel enough to be patented, and advertise the patents (and the fact that keys have tightly controlled distribution) as a selling point. Many users actually prefer these patented products because even though it means they might have to pay monopoly prices for their keys, it makes it less likely that a thief will be able to get a duplicate at the corner hardware store. I'm a bit skeptical about whether this really is effective (and at least one legal case, Best v. Ilco, casts some doubt on the validity of many of the key blank patents) but it's standard practice in the lock industry. Are there other examples where patents are used as a security mechanism? -matt --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
