Thursday the PTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Protection Technologies Research, LLC (RU), the first application discloses techniques for unified end user license management in a DRM system. Assigned to Broadcom, the second patent discloses a mobile PayTV DRM architecture.
20140237625, "Method for unified end user license management in a DRM system," assigned to Protection Technologies Research, LLC (RU)
Abstract
A method for end user license management comprising maintaining a server-side DRM database of information about licensed objects, the licensed objects including application software, digital content and services; verifying, upon an end user request to utilize the licensed object, validity of a license held by the end user; providing, to the end user, permission to use the licensed object if the verification is successful; rejecting the request to use the licensed object if the verification is not successful; periodically receiving requests to continue utilize the licensed object, and verifying continued validity of a license held by the end user; providing, to the end user, continued permission to use the licensed object if the verification is successful; and rejecting the request to continue using the licensed object if the verification is not successful.20140233732, "Mobile PayTV DRM architecture," assigned to Broadcom.
Abstract
A secure element operating in conjunction with a secure partition of a system-on-a-chip (SoC) having set top box (STB) functionality allows for digital rights management (DRM) key handling in a mobile platform. The secure element can include a secure processing system (SPS) to be implemented as a hard macro, thereby isolating the SPS from a peripheral processing system (PPS). The secure element and the secure partition of the SoC may be operatively connected by a secure cryptographic channel.
