Managing Rights Management

Digital Rights Management Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications address various aspects of DRM. Assigned to General Instruments (Motorola), the first application discloses techniques for interoperability between different digital rights management systems. The second application discloses techniques for digital rights management and audience measurement, no assignee... Read more →

Hitachi and LG Electronics Watermarking Issued Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents address various uses of watermarking. Assigned to LG Electronics, the first of today's patents concerns a watermark-based copy management system and digital media copy protection. Assigned to Hitachi, the second patent addresses using watermarking in accessed data in... Read more →

Norway Pressures Apple to Drop DRM from iPhone

It's now well understood that DRM is being used to enforce business models by protecting content from being used without authorization or on unauthorized devices. Now Norway is being pressured by consumer advocates to force Apple to open their iTunes platform, so says the Romow Science and Technology Blog. The... Read more →

Subscriptions - Music Model Applied to Gaming?

Seeking Alpha is a website devoted to investing and financial matters. (It's name is from the alpha coefficient in finance which can be understood as return on invested capital.) In a recent article, Bruce Everiss looks at Apple's iTunes and Nokia's phone-based music subscription model and suggests that subscriptions might... Read more →