[Cryptography] [cryptography] Dual EC backdoor was patented by Certicom?

[John Gilmore]

Has anyone considered the idea that Certicom patented the back door so
that they could sue anyone who tried to use it for the next 20 years?

Cryptography Research invented some cool attacks on smart cards that
watch the chip's power consumption while it calculates crypto.  They
not only patented the attack, to prevent others from deploying it at
scale.  They also patented all the countermeasures they could think
of.  Now every smart card maker ends up paying them to secure their
chips against this attack (unless the maker invents a new
countermeasure that CR didn't think of).

Ultimately this patent portfolio got CR acquired by Rambus in 2011 for
$342M: they won the startup lottery.

	John