From: guy@theporch.raider.net (Jonathan Guy)
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 93 01:57:15 PDT
To: peb@PROCASE.COM (Paul Baclace)
Subject: Re: patent on remote cash transactions?
In-Reply-To: <9308102004.AA01064@banff.procase.com>
Message-ID: <m0oQBKY-0009UVC@theporch.raider.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> American Public Radio reported yesterday that some company was granted
> a broad patent on remote cash transactions--they mentioned an article
> in the NYTimes recently (NYT does patent reporting on Saturday typically, but
> sometimes they do it in the business section on other days; I don't get
> NYT anymore...); anyone here more about this?  Is this yet another 
> example of bozo software patents?  If anyone finds out more, please post.

I read the NYT article, which was on the second page of the business section
in Monday's edition.  Apparently the patent was granted to a Virginia
company (don't recall the name, and that may be the wrong state... <sigh>)
and covers virtually anything that provides ATM-like functionality from a
home computer.  The exact boundaries of the patent weren't discussed in the
article, but I seriously doubt it would affect a digital cash system.

-- 
Jonathan R. Guy                    |  The opinions expressed above are not  
E-Mail: guy@theporch.raider.net    |     those of my employer.  Nor are
Snail:  P.O. Box 158325            |  they my own.  Actually, I copied them  
        Nashville, TN 37215        |        from the encyclopedia.