[robin11]

It is anticipated that advances in algorithms will render current security obsolete within 2 years. This should result in huge elliptical encryption licensing opportunities for Blackberry.

Can BB's elliptical encryption be used to secure clouds? Will companies like Yahoo, Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft soon need to licence Blackberry's elliptical encryption to secure their clouds?

Will phone makers like Samsung and Apple need to licence elliptical encryption for their smart phones to work with Apple and android cloud services?

Elliptical encryption will soon be needed to secure purchase/sale transactions at NFC terminals and on line transactions like retail purchases, banking transactions and mobile trading.

What impact would the above licensing opportunities have on Blackberry? Could elliptical encryption spur a hostile take over of Blackberry?

[sk8er_tor]

It's said to be this patent is the crown jewel of BlackBerry's patent portfolio.

[sergey_IL]

There is nice read on the topic:
The Case for Elliptic Curve Cryptography - NSA/CSS

It says that NSA already moved to ECC. May be this is a good idea to follow them.

EDIT: As far as I understand SSL and https protocols using AES, but main disadvantage is the computational cost and more public key sharing.
So, can't understand if AES can be adopted widely and eliminate the need for ECC.

[Sqoon]

A lot of those patents are old and of questionable enforcement. It will not make a dent in the patent war.

Posted via CB10

[Troy Tiscareno]

BB's elliptical encryption

BB doesn't "own" elliptical encryption. BB has a patent on one particular IMPLEMENTATION of elliptical encryption (a useful implementation method, to be sure), from a company they acquired. People who wanted to implement EE that way would have to license the patent from BB, but nothing is stopping anyone from finding another way to implement it (and it has been implemented in other ways). Also, the BB patent is only good for another 5 years or so before it expires, if I'm not mistaken, so BB needs to hope that the world needs to use their implementation SOON, or it won't make a difference anyway.

[robin11]

BB's sub has over 900 patents on elliptical encryption.....however, anyone is free to come up with another way to use it and patent it.....

[sergey_IL]

Its not elliptical encryption
Its Elliptical Curve encryption

[sergey_IL]

BB doesn't "own" elliptical encryption. BB has a patent on one particular IMPLEMENTATION of elliptical encryption (a useful implementation method, to be sure), from a company they acquired. People who wanted to implement EE that way would have to license the patent from BB, but nothing is stopping anyone from finding another way to implement it (and it has been implemented in other ways). Also, the BB patent is only good for another 5 years or so before it expires, if I'm not mistaken, so BB needs to hope that the world needs to use their implementation SOON, or it won't make a difference anyway.

The same can be said for any patent and technology. But still patents are valuable.
In some cases algorithms are impossible to implement differently or too complicated to be useful.
Some quote from Certicom Patent Suit Against Sony Threatens to Unravel AACS:
According to Bruce Schneier as of May 31, 2007, "Certicom certainly can claim ownership of ECC. The algorithm was developed and patented by the company's founders, and the patents are well written and strong. I don't like it, but they can claim ownership."

[iN8ter]

There is nice read on the topic:
The Case for Elliptic Curve Cryptography - NSA/CSS

It says that NSA already moved to ECC. May be this is a good idea to follow them.

EDIT: As far as I understand SSL and https protocols using AES, but main disadvantage is the computational cost and more public key sharing.
So, can't understand if AES can be adopted widely and eliminate the need for ECC.

The NSA has ECC patents, among others. They have quite a few patents in the security industry, actually. Even HP has a couple ECC patents. BB doesn't own ECC. They only own patents pertaining to it. Quite a few, but not all of them.

[sergey_IL]

Other useful document from SECG:
http://www.secg.org/download/aid-398...etter_SECG.pdf

So actually all Certicom patents are about fast implementation and secure key exchange ("man in the middle" attack).
Wikipedia says that ECC patents are the main reason of why this method is not widespread today.
I think until Certicom/BlackBerry will provide practical licensing it will not have common use.

It seems like its mathematical background is indeed very strong and potentially much harder to hack than any other method