Good news on crypto patents:

[James A. Donald]

Good news on patents, particularly crypto patents.

The CAFC, the US patent court, has recently ruled that the patent holder 
cannot hit you with punitive damages unless, on the preponderance of the 
evidence, you were objectively reckless - that you knew or strongly 
suspected you were violating the patent.

By and large, the remaining crypto patents are canned uncertainty and 
doubt, intended to muddy the water, patenting everything, anything, and 
nothing.  This previously worked in favor of the patent holder, but now 
it works against the patent holder.

The way it now works is that if you have an arguable case that you are 
not in violation of the patent, you can barge right ahead and wait for 
the patent holder to spend many millions of dollars and many years in 
court to clarify the situation.  Don't hold your breath.

This also negates the Microsoft tactic "If you use linux, you are 
violating our patents, but we will not tell you what patents you are 
violating, or what aspect of linux violates them".  Now, genuine 
uncertainty works *against* the patent holder.

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