RSA suit against PGP back on track
A suit between arch rivals RSA Data Security and Pretty Good Privacy is back on track now that a third party, Cylink, has withdrawn from the fight.
RSA sued PGP in California state court in May seeking a ruling that the license PGP cites to use RSA patents is invalid. PGP says the suit is without merit.
But before the two parties could hash out their differences, Cylink joined the fray by claiming that RSA didn't have the sole authority to terminate PGP's license. Cylink cited a partnership it joined into with RSA in 1990. The two companies intended to use the alliance, called Public Key Partners or PKP, to license a suite of encryption patents to third parties.
"Cylink unfortunately cannot agree that RSA has a unilateral right to terminate a PKP license," Cylink's general counsel Bob Fougner wrote in a letter shortly after RSA sued PGP. "Since RSA's purported termination affects both parties' rights, it must be deemed ineffective without Cylink's consent."
It was by no means the first time Cylink and RSA had disagreed. In December, the two companies settled a patent dispute in which the companies agreed to a cross-licensing deal. Cylink's assertion essentially put the RSA suit on hold until Cylink and RSA were able to settle their differences.
Late last week RSA posted a new letter from Fougner announcing that Cylink had dropped its claims. "Pursuant to an agreement of the two partners of PKP...RSA has the sole and exclusive right to enforce such license agreement or the [RSA] patent," Fougner wrote in an August 19 letter. "RSA's exclusive right to enforce such license agreement includes, without limitation, terminating such license agreement."
Indeed, PGP has made life more difficult for RSA. Just last week, the Internet Engineering Task Force said it was close to dismissing an encryption protocol submitted by RSA for consideration as an Internet standard and was instead taking up a technology submitted by PGP.