Patent Reform Town Hall Meeting (Balt/Washington Area IEEE C

On Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:30:08 +0100, Noob wrote:

That is, the ability to search encrypted text.
If one could have a file of encrypted, but not
published, text, and the appropriate search algorithm,
one could determine, for example, the possible existence
of prior art without being able to actually read it.
(snip)

Your description reminds me of Zero-knowledge proofs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof

Until I followed that link, I thought that response was a
lot more insulting than it turned out to be.