[Since we are discussing a specific patent rather than the patent pool, I think it is helpful to change to subject line.]
Response below. On Mon, 24 Mar 2003, Tim Churches wrote: > > Horst Herb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > David Forslund wrote: > > > I looked over the patent and don't understand how the patent was > > > granted. There is much prior > > > art in this area including standards from the OMG, where the > > patient > > > identifier (which can be > > > > I discussed this with Andrew some time ago. In fact we already used > > this > > separation of information in order to protect confidential data in > > almost literally the same way as his patent in ~ 1986 (?, maybe even > > earlier) at the Technical University of Munich for cardiol. study > > data. Horst, Tim, Dave, Separation of patient identifiers from other patient data is not one of the novel aspects (= claims) of the Sequentially Distributed Secret Splitting (SDSS) patent. In fact, SDSS is applicable to non-patient data and any data. Rather, what the SDSS patent describes are ways to store and retrieve information in a secure manner after the information has been split up. Two issues for you to consider: 1) The characterization that separating patient identifiers from other patient data as a type of "secret splitting" is novel. This is not what the field calls "secret splitting" before my publications. In fact, the strategy of separating patient identifiers from the rest of data was not known to be scalable to arbitrary degrees of security before SDSS - since the old strategy was as a narrow solution rather than a general information protection mechanism. The enabling step that makes "secret splitting" generalizable and scalable (and which remains non-obvious to many experts in the field - like yourselves - despite my publications and explanations :-), is the "sequentially distributed" design. 2) The "sequentially distributed" manner in which the secret splitting design is implemented is unique. Each share of secret is tunneled through a sequentially arranged series of data storage/management units to a specific location for storage. A form of "sequential distribution" has been used in "Onion Routing" http://www.onion-router.net/Publications.html, but obviously for an entirely different purpose (protects identity of the users of the system rather than for storing and retrieving secret data). ... > All predate Andrew's patent application, I'm afraid. No problem, if someone else deserves credit for inventing SDSS, I will be glad to recognize that. As always, I welcome further discussions especially if you disagree with my views. :-) ... Best regards, Andrew --- Andrew P. Ho, M.D. OIO: Open Infrastructure for Outcomes www.TxOutcome.Org
