E-Stamp Awarded New Patents:

San Mateo, Calif.-based E-Stamp Corp., which sells postage over the Internet, said it was awarded two new patents as it battles rival Stamps.com Inc. of Santa Monica in the emerging market for online postal services. The company was granted the patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office. One involves electronic document certification, which secures messages sent over the Net. The other involves an automatic weighing technique, said E-Stamp counsel Randy Gard. The government-approved PC Postage system lets customers print postage directly onto correspondence, bypassing traditional stamps and postal services, appealing to small and midsized businesses.