New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Today's Spotlight Patents continue our theme of blockchains (smart contracts, distributed ledgers) and rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Turner Broadcasting, the first patent addresses techniques for providing media content to content consumers for playback and consumption. Assigned to Blockchain Certified Data SAS (FR), the second of today's patents addresses techniques for document certification and publication.
10,715,867, "Providing media content to content consumers for playback and consumption," assigned to Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc.
Abstract
Media content items is provided to content consumers for playback and consumption includes plurality of nodes interacting with each other in accordance with defined protocol in communication network. A first node receives a request for playback of a media content from a content consumer. A second node owns the requested media content and provides media content rights to the first participant and/or the content consumer. The first node further provides media content metadata to the consumer device for consumption. A plurality of instances of a distributed media rights transaction ledger, associated with respective node, includes a plurality of media content rights transactions corresponding to an acquisition of the media content rights by the first participant and/or content consumer prior to the consumption of the media content. The plurality of media content rights transactions is categorized, defined, and managed by plurality of nodes in accordance with the defined protocol.
10,715,313, "Systems and computer-based methods of document certification and publication," assigned to Blockchain Certified Data SAS (FR)
Abstract
A method is implemented in a networked computer system that is connected to document issuers and validators and interacts with a blockchain. It comprises generating a master key assigned to an issuer, certifying a document through a first process including generating a document persistence key, encrypting document data with an encryption algorithm and an encryption key derived from three keys (the master key, the document persistence key and an intermediate key), registering encrypted document data in the blockchain, and generating a web address carrying recovery information of the certified document; reading the document through a second process accessible to the web address, the second process including recovering the encrypted data in the blockchain and accessing the three keys, decrypting the encrypted data using the encryption key derived from the three keys, and displaying the document; and upon request from a legitimate holder of the document erasing the persistence key.
