One dose of extortion coming right up!
If a schmuck like me can pop that balloon, I hate to think what a half-competent patent lawyer could do.
While there are likely many who could lay claim to an innovation such as two-step,
Dotcom's patent — filed under his birth name, Kim Schmitz — appears to hold some water.
It claims priority back to 1997, which would make it difficult to invalidate, and has
wide coverage. Despite its age, it illustrates the current concept of two-step
authentication by detailing how a secondary access code could be sent via pager or SMS.
authentication != authorisation.
From which it follows:
Two-factor authentication != two-factor authorisation.
The patent does not cover authentication, on my reading.