From: djb@silverton.berkeley.edu (D. J. Bernstein) Newsgroups: sci.crypt Subject: You want to use DSA? Apply for a personal license from NIST! Date: 27 Jul 93 06:22:03 GMT Organization: IR Lines: 103 NIST plans to give Public Key Partners exclusive rights to the Digital Signature Algorithm. Do you want to guarantee your own rights to this technology? You can! It's free, if you can spare a stamp. Attached is a form letter you can send to NIST to apply for a personal license. Put in your own name, address, country, and the right date; print it out; read through to check it over; sign it; and drop it in the mail. You don't have to get everything right the first time---NIST will contact you if they need more information to make a decision. And, as a bonus, your application will automatically count as an objection to the NIST-PKP deal! I believe that NIST must receive your application by next Friday, the 6th of August, but the due date might be earlier. You might want to check immediately with Michael Rubin at 301-975-2803. If necessary you can fax your letter to him. ---Dan ^L [address] [date] Michael R. Rubin Acting Chief Counsel for Technology Room A-1111 Administration Building National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD 20899 Dear Mr. Rubin: I hereby apply for a personal license to use the Digital Signature Algorithm. 1. Title of invention: Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA). 2. Patent Application Serial Number: 07/738.431. 3. United States Patent Number: To be issued as 5,231,668, I believe. 4. Source of information concerning availability of a license: Various sources, including your Federal Register notice. 5. Name and address of applicant: [name], [address, phone, etc.]. 6. Applicant's representative: not applicable. 7. I am a [country] citizen. 8. Approximate number of persons employed: not applicable. 9. I am not a small business firm. 10. Purpose: I would like a personal license allowing me to implement and use DSA. See #12. 11. Business and commercialization: not applicable; see #10. 12. Plans: I plan to use DSA to attach digital signatures to a variety of electronic documents, primarily for authentication. I plan to use DSA implementations, initially in software but perhaps later in hardware, from a variety of potential future sources. Investments: I may spend many hours programming a DSA implementation. ^L page 2 13. Fields of commercialization: not applicable; see #10. 14. I am not willing to accept a license for less than all fields of use of DSA. 15. I intend to implement and use DSA only in [country]. 16. Type of license: I would like a non-exclusive license which does not require royalty payments. 17. I have never been granted a license to a federally owned invention. 18. Known uses of DSA by industry or government: I have heard that ISC sells a product called dsaSIGN, and that Bellcore has implemented DSA. 19. Other information: I understand that NIST may grant an exclusive DSA license to PKP, and that this license application will be treated as an objection to the PKP license. Please note that PKP has stated its intent to make DSA free for personal use. Therefore, if NIST grants PKP a license and PKP acts according to its stated intent, there is no harm to anyone if I am granted this personal license. However, I do not trust PKP to act according to its stated intent, and I do not want to have to apply for a license from PKP even if it is royalty-free. So I ask that you grant me a license directly. Thank you for your kind attention. Please let me know if you need more information. Sincerely, [name] Paul Ferguson | "Government, even in its best state, Network Integrator | is but a necessary evil; in its worst Centreville, Virginia USA | state, an intolerable one." fergp@sytex.com | - Thomas Paine, Common Sense I love my country, but I fear its government.