From: "Randy Holcomb" 

(from Politech:)
***********
Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 09:40:28 -0800
To: nobody{at}well.com
From: Jim Warren 
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!
===
http://patents.uspto.gov/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+PATBIB-ALL+0+967198+0+7+25907+O
F+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.

***********

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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