Getting your downloaded copy of ePave. At least one user has reported difficulty downloading the ePave software. The USPTO people tell me that they decided to try to make it difficult for people outside the US to get their hands on the ePave software. The reason, of course, is that the ePave software does encryption, and encryption is the same as nuclear weapons, it is illegal to let it out of the country. So the USPTO checks your IP address and does a reverse domain name lookup (also called in-addr-arpa) to map the IP address to a domain name, and they look to see if the mapped domain name appears to be in the US. And if there is no in-addr-arpa record for your IP address, they will refuse to let you have the ePave file. (This basically means your system administrator forgot to set up your in-addr-arpa record. In such a case, ask your system administrator to get your in-addr-arpa record set up.) Or if the USPTO can't manage to do a Whois on the domain name that results from the in-addr-arpa lookup, then they will refuse to let you have the ePave file. So you should ask your system administrator to tell you what domain name is mapped from your IP address, and you should check to see if it is in Whois. I mention this because the user who inquired had an email address that ends in "dot mil", and many Whois programs can't figure out how to do a Whois on a dot mil.

The usual trick that works fine, whenever one is having trouble downloading encryption software (PGP, ePave, 128-bit Netscape, etc.) is to download it from an AOL or Compuserve account. Such accounts always have functioning in-addr-arpa records for their IP addresses, and they always "look" as if they are in the US. I assume that anyone outside the US who wants to obtain ePave will manage to do it by using an AOL or Compuserve account.