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16 August 1998
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 09:56:27 -0500 To: cypherpunks@toad.com From: Bruce Schneier <schneier@counterpane.com> Subject: Microsoft Electronic Commerce patent: Prior Art? I just received this in email. Bruce ------------begin forwarded message-------- Dear Bruce, the Microsoft Patent 5,768,385 filed Aug. 29, 1995, issued Jun. 16, 1998 on "Untraceable Electronic Cash" is nothing more than a well written remake of the "Anonymously Transferable Standard Values" presented at IFIP Sec 1986 under the name "Anonymous Standard Value Accounts", published both in the Pre- and Post-Proceedings there, more detailed in a research report of 1987 and even published in a refereed journal, Computers & Security in 1989, see below. I do not know the legal system of the US well enough to know whether challenging the patent is worthwhile and I do neither have the time nor money to do it for myself, but I think it is at least worthwhile for the security community to know. So please feel free to distribute this information, e.g. within CRYPTO-GRAM. Yours Andreas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Most of the references below can be downloaded at http://www.semper.org/sirene/lit/sirene.lit.html Holger Bürk, Andreas Pfitzmann: Value transfer systems enabling security and unobservability; Security and Protection in Information Systems (IFIP/Sec. '86), A. Grissonnanche (ed.), North-Holland, 1989, 225-237. (Superseded by the following BüPf-papers.) Holger Bürk, Andreas Pfitzmann: Value Transfer Systems Enabling Security and Unobservability; Interner Bericht 2/87, Fakultät für Informatik, Universität Karlsruhe 1987. (37 pages; Abstract and paper available online. See also BüPf_89, BüPf_90.) BüPf_89 Holger Bürk, Andreas Pfitzmann: Digital Payment Systems Enabling Security and Unobservability; Computers & Security 8/5 (1989) 399-416. (Abstract and paper available online.) BüPf_90 Holger Bürk, Andreas Pfitzmann: Value Exchange Systems Enabling Security and Unobservability; Computers & Security 9/8 (1990) 715-721. (Abstract and paper available online.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Andreas Pfitzmann Technische Universitaet Dresden Phone (home) +49 351 3161973 Fakultaet Informatik (office) +49 351 4638277 Institut Theoretische Informatik (secretary) +49 351 4638247 D 01062 Dresden Fax +49 351 4638255 Germany e-mail pfitza@inf.tu-dresden.de ------------end forwarded message-------- ********************************************************************** Bruce Schneier, President, Counterpane Systems Phone: 612-823-1098 101 E Minnehaha Parkway, Minneapolis, MN 55419 Fax: 612-823-1590 Free crypto newsletter. See: http://www.counterpane.com