New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Intel, the first of today's patents addresses technologies for supporting multiple digital rights management protocols on a client device. Assigned to CSC Holdings, the second patent addresses techniques for a flexible video-on-demand viewing period that is varied depending on whether the customer has completed viewing the entire program, allowing the viewing period to be extended if the customer has not completed viewing the entire program.
9,781,113, "Technologies for supporting multiple digital rights management protocols on a client device," assigned to Intel.
Abstract
Technologies for supporting and implementing multiple digital rights management protocols on a client device are described. In some embodiments, the technologies include a client device having an architectural enclave which may function to identify one of a plurality of digital rights management protocols for protecting digital information to be received from a content provider or a sensor. The architectural enclave select a preexisting secure information processing environment (SIPE) to process said digital information, if a preexisting SIPE supporting the DRM protocol is present on the client. If a preexisting SIPE supporting the DRM protocol is not present on the client, the architectural enclave may general a new SIPE that supports the DRM protocol on the client. Transmission of the digital information may then be directed to the selected preexisting SIPE or the new SIPE, as appropriate.
9,774,926, "Flexible video-on-demand viewing period," assigned to CSC Holdings, LLC.
Abstract
A flexible video-on-demand viewing period is varied depending on whether the customer has completed viewing the entire program, allowing the viewing period to be extended if the customer has not completed viewing the entire program. The approach better assures the customer that they will have the opportunity to complete viewing the entire program, compared to a fixed rental period, while assuring program copyright owners that the utility of the rental is limited, fundamentally as intended, preserving the future value of the asset. The approach also enables viewers to retain bookmarks as needed for content that is not naturally tied to a rental period, such as subscription video-on-demand, without unnecessarily enlarging their list of active rentals.