Certicom Corp. is a cryptography company held by BlackBerry The Certicom intellectual property portfolio includes over 350 patents and patents pending worldwide that cover key aspects of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC): software optimizations, efficient hardware implementations, methods to enhance the security, and various cryptographic protocols.[citation needed]
The National Security Agency (NSA) has licensed 26 of Certicom's ECC patents as a way of clearing the way for the implementation of elliptic curves to protect US and allied government information.[132]
Certicom's current customers include General Dynamics, Motorola, Oracle, Research In Motion and Unisys.[citation needed]
On January 23, 2009, VeriSign entered into an agreement to acquire Certicom.[133] Research In Motion put in a counter-offer, which was deemed superior.[134] VeriSign did not match this offer,[135] and so Certicom announced an agreement to be acquired by RIM.[136] Upon the completion of this transaction, Certicom became a wholly owned subsidiary of RIM, and was de-listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange on March 25, 2009.