hfinney@shell.portal.com:

A little while ago someone posted about a new company that would do patent searches via email requests. For another week they are doing free searches as an introductory offer. I did a search on blind-signature based cash systems, and these are the patents it found. This might be useful for those considering implementing electronic cash. Full text of patents are available for $4.95. The kind of search I did for free will cost $149 after another week. People are allowed 3 searches per day for free until then.

I seem to remember that the USPTO provides full texts of patents for $3... Anyway, those who plan to perform many such services at $149 might consider purchasing the 10-CDROM database for $5,000 (?) Also, you can WWW to wais://town.hall.org:210/patent for full WAIS searches in real time for keywords. I'm not sure whether Town Hall has old patents (possibly only for the current year); but is does have many relating to electronic cash, cryptography, signatures and so on. (Note: most of these are software patents, not applicable outside the USA. An average of 80 software patents a week were issued in the first quarter of 1994.) The home page (http://town.hall.org) connects to many other services, including the SEC EDGAR documents. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh "What is civilisation rishab@dxm.ernet.in but a ribonucleic Voicemail +91 11 3760335; Vox/Fax/Data 6853410 hangover?" H-34C Saket New Delhi 110017 INDIA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------