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Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
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------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Sat, 13 May 2000 18:13:11 -0400 To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: FC: Patent issued for using barcode tatoos to identify humans Send reply to: declan@well.com
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Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 09:40:28 -0800 To: nobody@well.com From: Jim Warren <jwarren@well.com> Subject: 1999 patent issued for using barcode tatoos for human identification
Aside from the comparison of this patent to the numbers tatooed on prisoners in Hitler's death-camps during World War II more than half a century ago, and its comparison to the barcode scanning systems that have been in use for decades to identify everything from cans of soup to patient tags used in some hospitals and medical records -- one wonders what kindergarden child working in the US Patent and Trademark Office concluded that this was a non-obvious and novel "discovery" worthy of a patent?!
The US PTO is obviously in need of some adult supervision!
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http://patents.uspto.gov/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+PATBIB-ALL+0+967198+0+7+25907+OF+1+1+1+PN%2f5878155
United States Patent 5,878,155 Heeter Mar. 2, 1999 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Method for verifying human identity during electronic sale transactions Abstract A method is presented for facilitating sales transactions by electronic media. A bar code or a design is tattooed on an individual. Before the sales transaction can be consummated, the tattoo is scanned with a scanner. Characteristics about the scanned tattoo are compared to characteristics about other tattoos stored on a computer database in order to verify the identity of the buyer. Once verified, the seller may be authorized to debit the buyer's electronic bank account in order to consummate the transaction. The seller's electronic bank account may be similarly updated.
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Here's an article from last year on Heeter's patent: http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19991023/patentrigh.html
Some folks were upset: http://www.av1611.org/666/index.html http://home.iae.nl/users/lightnet/world/mark.htm http://sites.netscape.net/tadprophet/waymarks
So we know that a man named Thomas W. Heeter, who lives in or near Houston, Texas last year received a patent on this barcode scheme. What's interesting is that a man also named Thomas W. Heeter, who also lives in or near Houston, recently ran for election as a family court judge.
-Declan
The Houston Chronicle March 11, 1999 Ex-judge candidate sues Fox television By RON NISSIMOV
A former Democratic candidate for a Harris County state district judge position has sued Fox television, two reporters and a lawyer regarding broadcasts that questioned his competency to serve as judge.
Lawyer Thomas W. Heeter, who ran unopposed in the March 10, 1998, Democratic primary for 312th state district judge, is representing himself in the state district suit he filed Tuesday.
The suit said that broadcasts last year from March 5 to March 15 wrongly accused Heeter of "being subject to a mental health warrant, being previously convicted for indecent exposure, offering a $ 50,000 bribe to Judge T.O. Stansbury, carrying a gun and threatening to cause bodily injury (and) lying about his county of residence in order to run for public office."
The Harris County Democratic party decided in May 1998 not to back Heeter because of his "personal and professional challenges," said Sue Schechter, county Democratic chairwoman, at the time. Heeter dropped out of the race before the November 1998 election
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