Ahah but you see that’s why I have founded BlocuSign in the Bahamas - far away from the reach of those pesky lawyers.

How can something so fundamentally math-based as Public-key cryptography be so heavyliy patented?

Because math is useful?

Using math does not disqualify someone from obtaining a patent.

> they have lots of money for lawyers

Don’t forget the lobbyists. They have lots of money for them, as well.

patents are government granted monopolies on algorithms. "Algorithm" defined as "a set of rules that precisely defines a sequence of operations"

It's just series of steps, a recipe. You do "A", then "B", then "C" as outlined in a patent then you violate a patent and the person has the right to sue you. Whether the steps are outlined involve math or not isn't really relevant.

What is covered and not covered by a patent is very arbitrary and based on court precedent. Any sort of sanctions against "pure math functions" are usually easily worked around by including "as done in a computer" or similar language.

Patents are a very good way for governments to retard progress while rewarding large companies for investing in large numbers of lawyers.

but key-based cryptographic sigs have been around long before Docusign