You want to use DSA? Apply for a personal license from NIST!

[gnu (John Gilmore)]

From: djb@silverton.berkeley.edu (D. J. Bernstein)
Newsgroups: sci.crypt
Subject: You want to use DSA? Apply for a personal license from NIST!
Date: 27 Jul 93 06:22:03 GMT

NIST plans to give Public Key Partners exclusive rights to the Digital 
Signature Algorithm. Do you want to guarantee your own rights to this 
technology? You can! It's free, if you can spare a stamp.

Attached is a form letter you can send to NIST to apply for a personal 
license. Put in your own name, address, country, and the right date; 
print it out; read through to check it over; sign it; and drop it in the
mail. You don't have to get everything right the first time---NIST will 
contact you if they need more information to make a decision. And, as a 
bonus, your application will automatically count as an objection to the 
NIST-PKP deal!

I believe that NIST must receive your application by next Friday, the
6th of August, but the due date might be earlier. You might want to 
check immediately with Michael Rubin at 301-975-2803. If necessary you 
can fax your letter to him.

---Dan



                                [address]
                                [date]

Michael R. Rubin
Acting Chief Counsel for Technology
Room A-1111
Administration Building
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899

Dear Mr. Rubin:

I hereby apply for a personal license to use the Digital Signature
Algorithm.

1. Title of invention: Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA).

2. Patent Application Serial Number: 07/738.431.

3. United States Patent Number: To be issued as 5,231,668, I believe.

4. Source of information concerning availability of a license: Various 
sources, including your Federal Register notice.

5. Name and address of applicant: [name], [address, phone, etc.].

6. Applicant's representative: not applicable.

7. I am a [country] citizen.

8. Approximate number of persons employed: not applicable.

9. I am not a small business firm.

10. Purpose: I would like a personal license allowing me to implement 
and use DSA. See #12.

11. Business and commercialization: not applicable; see #10.

12. Plans: I plan to use DSA to attach digital signatures to a variety
of electronic documents, primarily for authentication. I plan to use DSA
implementations, initially in software but perhaps later in hardware,
from a variety of potential future sources. Investments: I may spend 
many hours programming a DSA implementation.

                                                                page 2

13. Fields of commercialization: not applicable; see #10.

14. I am not willing to accept a license for less than all fields of use 
of DSA.

15. I intend to implement and use DSA only in [country].

16. Type of license: I would like a non-exclusive license which does not 
require royalty payments.

17. I have never been granted a license to a federally owned invention.

18. Known uses of DSA by industry or government: I have heard that ISC 
sells a product called dsaSIGN, and that Bellcore has implemented DSA.

19. Other information: I understand that NIST may grant an exclusive 
DSA license to PKP, and that this license application will be treated as 
an objection to the PKP license.

Please note that PKP has stated its intent to make DSA free for personal
use. Therefore, if NIST grants PKP a license and PKP acts according to 
its stated intent, there is no harm to anyone if I am granted this
personal license. However, I do not trust PKP to act according to its
stated intent, and I do not want to have to apply for a license from PKP
even if it is royalty-free. So I ask that you grant me a license
directly.

Thank you for your kind attention. Please let me know if you need more 
information.

                                Sincerely,



                                [name]