New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Western Digital, the first of today's patents addresses techniques for a personal multimedia content archive. Assigned to Rockwell Automation, the second patent addresses an architecture for application of digital rights management to industrial automation devices including programmable logic controllers (PLCs), I/O devices, and communication adapters.
10,019,741, "Methods and systems for a personal multimedia content archive," assigned to Western Digital.
Abstract
The embodiments provide for legally transferring multimedia content stored on a medium to a personal content archive device. The device is configured to consolidate a user's content into a single device or secured storage that allows easy access to the content while preserving the digital rights of the content. When a content medium has been provided, the device queries a registration service over a network, such as the Internet, to register the content and indicate that it was legitimately obtained. The device may then be authorized to download and store an authorized version of the content into its secured storage. The authorized version may be the same or a variation of the registered content. The content may then be downloaded from one or more content sources. The registration process may be based on several criteria, such as an authenticity check of the medium, a fee payment, and the like.
10,027,489, "Digital rights management system and method," assigned to Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
Abstract
An architecture for application of digital rights management to industrial automation devices including programmable logic controllers (PLCs), I/O devices, and communication adapters is provided. Digital rights management involves a set of technologies for controlling and managing access to device objects and/or programs such as ladder logic programs. Access to automation device objects and/or programs can be managed by downloading rules of use that define user privileges with respect to automation devices and utilizing digital certificates, among other things, to verify the identity of a user desiring to interact with device programs, for example. The architecture can provide for secure transmission of messages to and amongst automation devices utilizing public key cryptography associated with digital certificates.
