Re: iSCSI: PAK: an alternative to SRP and DH-CHAP

[Philip MacKenzie <philmac@research.bell-labs.com>]

Bill, Ofer, David, and everyone,

I am still working with others at Lucent on firming
up the patent and licensing issues, and will try to give
you a very complete and clear answer very soon,
with as little ambiguity as possible.  I understand
that this is _very important_ and it is my top priority
right now.

In the meantime, I can say that to my personal knowledge,
I know that PAK depends on (at least) the EKE patent
(owned by Lucent) and at least one patent application
from Lucent.  There may be other patents that apply, but I
personally do not know of them.

Also, the following statement from Lucent applies:

In the event that any Lucent patents and/or patent applications
are determined to be essential to the implementation of
PAK in iSCSI as an IETF standards track specification, Lucent
is prepared to grant - on the basis of reciprocity (grantback) -
a license to those patents and/or patent applications on reasonable
and non-discriminatory terms.


So, I believe that the patent situation is more clear
with respect to PAK than with respect to SRP.

Again, I will work hard at making sure everything is even
more clear and unambiguous, but if I am not mistaken,
I think that this type of patent and licensing statement
is fairly standard in the IETF.

Regards,
Phil