This extremely seems strange to me, given what a patent is - a patent is exactly the opposite of a trade secret. It is a public document - you only get your IP protected in exchange for making public a document describing it, such that "one skilled in the art" can reproduce it once your patent expires.

The entire point of patent legislation is supposed to be to increase the amount of published knowledge in the public sphere. And here it is, supposedly, being used to prevent publication of knowledge.

I mean, I could see if they thought the physical device that IOActive built violated their patents. But publishing knowledge cannot be a violation of patent, as far as I know - possibly a disclosure of a trade secret, but anything patented can't possibly be a trade secret.

IANAL, IMO, etc.

[ reply ]

Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/articles/11444/34358#34358