Online and Digital Identification, Securing Web 2.0, PKI and Digital Certificates

Toshiba gains rights to use Cryptography patents

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Cryptography Research, Inc. has agreed to grant Toshiba Corp. use of their patents to enhance and expand its security products. Toshiba’s tamper-resistant products including smart cards, secure storage media and ASICs, work to protect systems against attacks such as Differential Power Analysis (DPA).

DPA attacks involve using advanced statistical methods to monitor the variable electrical power consumption of a device so that they may obtain cryptographic keys and other secrets embedded in the system.


Countermeasures to DPA are key technologies in today’s market and can protect products used vast number of applications including banking, pay television, mass transit, secure ID, and wireless telecommunications.

Today, Cryptography Research has been awarded a portfolio of over 50 patents covering countermeasures to DPA attacks, which are now available to Toshiba. The license between the two companies allows Toshiba’s customers to develop their own security countermeasures without a separate license from Cryptography Research [end] 

The U.S. government has settled an infringement case with Leighton Technologies by agreeing to license its smart cards.

Leighton Technologies, a subsidiary of General Patent, filed a case against the federal government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in January 2010. Leighton alleged that 54 federal agencies used its six smart card patents without authorization. Leighton’s technology was also used in e-passports.

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Dolcera Corporation has released a patent repository for NFC technology.

According to Dolcera, the new report provides a layout of “essential patents” that enable the use of the NFC technology based on ISO/IEC 14443, ECMA-340 and ECMA-352 standards, as well as the patents that are used to deliver NFC-enabled applications to consumers.

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London-based Smart Media Innovation Limited (SMI), a developer of mobile applications for secure ID management, has acquired the global rights to Datastrip’s product line of mobile biometric-enabled devices for secure ID verification, giving SMI the ability to offer a full mobile access and ID verification line.

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StarChip and CEA-Leti have inked a partnership agreement to develop a contactless front end for smart card applications.

The partnership includes technology and know-how transfer to StarChip. With this combined experience in secure integrated circuit development and contactless technology, StarChip will roll out state-of-the-art smart card products to enable applications in transport, banking and identity.

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Google has acquired 188 patents and 29 patents pending from IBM, some of which concern NFC technology, reports ZDNet.

Adding to the 2,053 IBM patents already turned over to Google in the past year, these new patents cover databases, mobile phones, server infrastructure, wireless telephone systems, NFC and other patents that may relate to Google’s Android mobile operating system.

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Credit Agricole, a retail banking group based in Paris, is teaming up with Gemalto to launch a large-scale deployment of contactless EMV banking cards in France.

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