Availability
A patent application for IDEA was first filed in Switzerland (CH A 1690/90) on May 18, 1990, then an international patent application was filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty on May 16, 1991. Patents were eventually granted in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, (European Patent Register entry for European patent no. 0482154, filed May 16, 1991, issued June 22, 1994 and expiring not later than May 16, 2011), the United States (U.S. Patent 5,214,703, issued May 25, 1993 and expiring not later than January 7, 2012) and Japan (JP 3225440). (According to the PGP FAQ, the US patent expired on May 25, 2010. However, US patent law was changed in 1995 such that patents now expire 20 years after filing, not 17 years after issuing. This holds retroactively for all patents that had not yet expired at the time the changed law came into effect, and it thus holds for IDEA. International treaties may or may not cause expiry as early as May 16, 2011.)
MediaCrypt AG is now offering a successor to IDEA and focuses on its new cipher (official release on May 2005) IDEA NXT, which was previously called FOX.
Read more about this topic: International Data Encryption Algorithm
Famous quotes containing the word availability:
“Since ... six weeks ago, there has been no day in which I have not had letters and visits on the subject of my nomination for the Presidency.... I say very little. I have in no instance encouraged any one to work to that end.... I have said the whole talk about me is on the score of availability. Let availability do the work then.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)