RSA Digital Certificate Patents to Expire September 26
ZDnet is reporting that several key patents in the RSA Security, Inc. portfolio will expire on September 26. The expiration of these patents, which have effectively limited the number of people offering on-the-wire encryption products for use in the USA, is expected to set off a large number of product announcements from competing vendors as well as current RSA licensees who will have the freedom to use similar, equally secure security tool kits.
CTDATA uses RSA-based digital certificates issued by Verisign for key applications on ctdata.com. We don't know very much about alternative approaches, other than the fact that free trade in a lot of encryption tools is constrained by international trade regulations.