Re: request for patent info

["J. J. Larrea" <jjl@Panix.Com>]

Eric Hughes writes:
> As much as we need this, we also need the actual text of the patents.
> What a patent actually covers is often much narrower than what is
> claimed.
 
And J. Eric Townsend adds:
> Anyone near a federal patent repository can easily get this
> information.  Walk in, find the patent by number, have the nice
> attendant print it out on a crappy photostat machine, pay in cash,
> leave.  No written record!  Rice U. has a nice staff.  (I don't know
> where the west coast ones are.)

Ah, the things we put up with in New York... the friendly attendants
at the FPR run by the New York Public Library will happily change your bills
into nickels and quarters so you can print it from microfilm yourself at
$0.30 per page...

But, they have a free dialup to the PTO's online "USPAT" database, which I
have been using for the past few months.  I will be there using the system
sometime during the week of June 22.  It would certainly be possible for me
to capture abstracts, legal info (assignees etc.), etc. on a floppy and
transfer it to the c-punks archive.  Depending on how busy the library happens
to be, I might also be able to get the fulltext of claims, and even maybe the
full disclosure statement, for a limited number of patents (it takes a *long*
time to download, and anything but citations is considered bad etiquette if
anyone is waiting for the single terminal).

I am willing to do this (time permitting, of course), if:

    (1) a person of credibility can assure me that I am not violating any
        copyright or other legislation by doing so.
    (2) one or more cypherpunks takes responsibility for gathering and
	summarizing a list of pertinent patent numbers, and keywords for
        further searching (which can include any word in the fulltext,
	inventor's name, assignee's name, etc.)

- JJ