Okay, so I called my source up, and we chatted a bit Long story short, Infospace, the company that up until now had Chaum's original blind signature patents, sold them, in a bundle of other stuff, to First Data, in a reorganization.
First Data is the largest credit-card processor in the US, among other things, but they bought the original Digicash patents as a way to get at an authentication technology they were paying Infospace to use already, and a business that Infospace, in the middle of its own litigation circus, wanted out of, offering it to its two biggest customers, First Data and American Express. First Data bought it, apparently, as the people in Seattle, who used to work eCash Technologies -- and then Infospace -- are supposedly getting their checks from First Data now. Since lots of the important bits are supposed to expire next year, the patents may or may not be useful. On the other hand, if they can be gotten clear, someone could get a running start, I suppose, especially if they made a partnership deal with First Data of some kind, and, if First Data was active in that partnership, leveraging their other connections in the funds-transfer business, that could be interesting. On the other other hand, :-), it's entirely clear that people could be developing code right now in anticipation of the patent expiration and go live with some kind of land rush when it's possible to do so. Plug a mint into an account at GoldMoney, or e-Gold, or even PayPal, if they partner with *them* -- and see what happens... Cheers, RAH -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
