Patent application filed for S/MIME and PGP

Pointed out by John Kane <jkane89(_at_)softhome(_dot_)net> on the openpgp list:

  
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='20010055396'.PGNR.&OS=DN/20010055396&RS=DN/20010055396

  Mechanism for efficient private bulk messaging 

  Secure bulk messaging mechanism in which, roughly described, a sender first
  encrypts a message once. The message can be decrypted with a message
  decryption key. These can be symmetric or asymmetric keys. For each
  recipient, the sender then encrypts the message decryption key with the
  recipient's public key. The sender then sends the encrypted message and the
  encrypted message decryption keys to a store-and-forward server.
  Subsequently, one or more recipients connect to the server and retrieve the
  encrypted message and the message encryption key that has been encrypted with
  the recipient's public key. Alternatively, the server can forward these items
  to each individual recipient. The recipient then decrypts the encrypted
  message decryption key with the recipient's private key, resulting in an un-
  encrypted message decryption key. The recipient then decrypts the message
  using the un-encrypted message decryption key.

Could someone located in Washington wander in to the USPTO offices and hit the
examiners over the head with a brick before they can rubberstamp this?

Peter.