Managing Rights Management

Verizon and Telepathy Labs Blockchain and DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Verizon, the first patent addresses techniques for using blockchains in conjunction with virtual SIM cards. Assigned to Telepathy Labs, the second patent addresses techniques for deprovisioning.

AT&T and SonicWall Digital Fingerprinting Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to AT&T, the first patent addresses techniques for sharing timed fingerprint location information. Assigned to SonicWall, the second patent addresses techniques for image based spam blocking.

Axoni and GM Blockchain and DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published by the USPTO on Thursdays. Today's Spotlight Applications continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Axoni, the first of today's applications discloses techniques for distributed privately subspaced blockchain data structures with secure access restriction management. Assigned to General Motors, the second application discloses techniques for using a blockchain database for data exchange between vehicles and entities.

Papirys and Verizon Blockchain and DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents continue the theme of blockchain (distributed ledger, smart contracts) and digital rights management broadly construed. Assigned to Papirys, the first patent addresses techniques for an ultra-secure blockchain-based electronic information transfer system. Assigned to Verizon, the second patent addresses techniques for using virtual subscriber identity modules (vSIMs) for client devices.

Sony and TAI Technologies DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of this week's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Sony, the first patent addresses techniques for statutory license restricted digital media playback on portable devices. Assigned to TAI Technologies, the second patent addresses techniques for targeted messaging, workflow management, and digital rights management for geofeeds.

IBM and Omnifone DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to IBM, the first patent addresses techniques for detecting usage of copyrighted video content using object recognition. Assigned to Omniphone (GB), the second patent addresses techniques for enabling digital music content to be downloaded to and used on a portable wireless computing device.

Bragi and Orange DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published on Thursdays by the USPTO. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Bragi (DE), the first application discloses an earpiece with Digital Rights Management. Assigned to Orange (FR), the second application discloses techniques for obtaining of access rights to a network, implemented by a communicating object.

IBM and Sprint DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to IBM, the first patent addresses techniques for digital rights management (DRM)-enabled policy management for an identity provider in a federated environment. Assigned to Sprint, the second patent addresses techniques for delivering digital content to a mobile device via a digital rights clearing house.

Microsoft and eBay DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to MSFT, the first patent addresses remote data access techniques for portable devices. Assigned to eBay, the second of today's patents addresses 3D printing marketplaces with federated access to printers.

Encryptics and Sony DRM Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published by the USPTO on Thursdays. Today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Encryptics, LLC, the first application discloses techniques for digital rights management of documents. Assigned to Sony, the second application discloses techniques for statutory license restricted digital media playback on portable devices.

Gracenote Fingerprinting and Tautachrome Watermarking Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published by the USPTO on Thursdays. Today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital fingerprinting and digital watermarking. Assigned to Gracenote, the first of today's applications addresses techniques for media source identification. Assigned to Tautachrome, the second application addresses techniques for authentication and validation of smartphone imagery.

Omnifone and Gula Consulting DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of this week's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Omnifone (GB), the first patent addresses techniques for enabling digital music content to be downloaded to and used on a portable wireless computing device. Assigned to Gula Consulting, the second patent addresses techniques for electronic media distribution.

Intertrust and Verizon DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of this week's Spotlight Patents concerns aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Intertrust, the first patent addresses techniques for governing content rendering, protection, and management applications. Assigned to Verizon, the second patent addresses techniques for a virtual set-top box ("STB") device system receiving a registration request to register a mobile computing device to operate as a virtual STB device.

Cellcrypt and Fuente and Angel DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Cellcrypt, the first patent addresses techniques for establishing secure groups of trusted contacts with access rights in a secure communication system. Assigned to Carrillo De La Fuente and  Miguel Angel (ES), the second patent addresses techniques for a protection method and system for distributing digital files whether new, second-hand, for rental, exchange or transfer.

Intertrust and Broadcom DRM Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Intertrust technologies, the first patent addresses techniques for fragmented file sharing. Assigned to Broadcom, the second patent addresses mobile payTV DRM architectures.

wayStorm and Cisco Watermarking Patent Applications

New pending patent applications are published by the PTO on Thursdays. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to wayStorm (TW), the first application discloses an advertisement distribution system and method for controlling operations of mobile electronic device. Assigned to Cisco, the second application discloses techniques for using a watermark with data integrity verification.

Omnifone and NCR DRM Patents

Back from vacation. New patents are issued by the PTO on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Omnifone (GB), the first patent addresses techniques for enabling digital music content to be downloaded to and used on a portable wireless computing device. Assigned to NCR, the second patent addresses techniques for secure distribution of protected content.

Sonic IP and Azuki Systems DRM Patent Applications

Thursdays the PTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Sonic IP, the first application discloses techniques for accessing digital content using electronic tickets and ticket tokens. Assigned to Azuki Systems, the second application discloses techniques for unified mobile content protection.

Protection Technologies and Broadcom DRM Patent Applications

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.

Two Samsung DRM Patents

Tuesdays the PTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management and both are assigned to Samsung.  The first patent concerns techniques for motion picture file encryption method and digital rights management method using the same. The second patent concerns techniques for managing digital rights management contents in portable terminal.

Two Intellectual Discovery DRM Patent Applications

The PTO publishes new pending patent applications on Thursdays. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management and both are assigned to Intellectual Discovery Co Ltd. (KR). The first application discloses techniques for providing license corresponding to encrypted contents to client apparatus and digital rights management conversion system. The second application discloses for providing data to a personal portable device via network.

Workshare and Microsoft Digital Fingerprinting Patents

Tuesdays the PTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to Workshare Technology, the first patent addresses techniques for preventing unauthorized disclosure of secure information using image fingerprinting. Assigned to Microsoft, the second patent addresses techniques for cloud-based content inspection for mobile devices.

Omnifone and Cox DRM Patent Applications

Thursdays the PTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Ominfone, the first application discloses techniques for enabling digital music content to be downloaded to and used on a portable wireless computing device. Apparently assigned to Cox Communications, the second appication discloses techniques for providing a separable digital rights management application in a conditional access system.

Elwha and Fraunhofer Watermarking Patent Applications

Thursdays the Patent Office publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to Elwha LLC, the first application discloses techniques for scanning a user environment and evaluating data of interest. A "William Gates" is listed as lead inventor and all of the several inventors are listed as Washington residents. Don't know if it's Bill Gates.  Assigned to Fraunhofer, the second of today's applications discloses techniques for a watermark generator that has an information spreader configured to spread an information unit to a plurality of time-frequency-domain values, to obtain a spread information representation.

Cox and Samsung DRM Patents

The Patent Office issues new patents on Tuesdays. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Cox Communications, the first patent addresses techniques for providing a separable digital rights management application. Assigned to Samsung (KR), the second patent addresses techniques for editing digital rights management contents in portable terminal

Sony Ericsson and Nokia DRM Patents

Tuesdays the Patent Office issues new patents. Today's Spotlight Patents both address aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Sony Ericsson, the first patent concerns techniques for distributing content to a mobile device with digital rights.  Assigned to Nokia, the second patent concerns techniques for managing access rights to information spaces.

Intertrust and Samsung DRM Patents

Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Intertrust, the first patent addresses trusted and secure techniques for item delivery and execution. Assigned to Samsung (KR), the second of today's patents addresses techniques for managing digital rights using portable storage device.

International CES 2013: Observations

#CES #CES2013

As the 2013 International CES (no longer officially the "Consumer Electronics Show") winds down in Las Vegas, a few observations.

• The show broke records in terms of show floor space--1.9 million square feet-- and attendance--150,000 people. The show felt much more crowded than it did last year. Long lines, very crowded show floor, etc.
• Noticeable was the continued absence of Apple and the absence on the show floor this year of an official Microsoft booth(s), this after Balmer announced Microsoft's withdrawal from the show last year. The official absence of both Apple and Microsoft felt like there were a couple of huge holes in the show. Given the empty conceptual space, if you will, the view provided--however broad and deep--has important limitations, chief among them is that it's not possible to leave the show with a reasonably complete picture of the "space."
• At the same time, Microsoft did have a substantial presence, but one had to look for it in the products of Microsoft's partners in the smartphone, PC, tablet, and other verticals.
• DRM remains alive and well in the TV / video / Blu-ray / Xbox / mobile space. The major smart TV vendors (LG, Samsung and then Panasonic, Sony, and may Sharp) remain committed to controlling video content, especially streaming movies, TV shows, and the like.

Akamai and Microsoft Fingerprinting Patent Applications

Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications address aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to Akamai, the first application discloses techniques for generating fingerprints based on information extracted by a content delivery network server. Assigned to Microsoft, the second application discloses techniques for cloud-based content inspection for mobile devices.

Ericsson and Nokia DRM Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents.  Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Ericsson (SE), the first patent addresses techniques for achieving a secure recording and storing of a recorded activity is based on an extended Digital Rights Management (DRM) system. Assigned to Nokia, the second patent addresses a a digital rights management (DRM) license manager to protect software applications from unauthorized use.

ZTE and Sony Conditional Access Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of conditional access systems.  Assigned to ZTE Corporation (CN), the first application discloses techniques for order relationship authentication, and mobile multimedia broadcasting-conditional access system. Apparently assigned to Sony (JP), the second application discloses a conditional access system.

UNILOC and Symantec Digital Fingerprinting Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents address aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to UNILOC (LU), the first patent concerns techniques for secure mobile communications. Assigned to Symantec, the second patent concerns optimized prepopulation of a client side cache in a deduplication environment.

Sprint and Nokia DRM Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents address aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Sprint, the first patent concerns techniques for controlling playout of media.  Assigned to Nokia, the second patent concerns techniques for distributing service information and digital rights for broadcast data.

Two Digital Watermarking Patent Applications

On Thurdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to Qualcomm, the first application discloses techniques for identifying visual media content captured by camera-enabled mobile device. The second application discloses techniques for embedding watermarks in a compressed stream, no assignee given.

Pantech and Verimatrix DRM Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Pantech (KR), the first application discloses techniques for digital rights management for use in mobile communication terminal. Assigned to Varimatrix, the second applcation discloses technques for detecting clone playback devices.

Microsoft and LG DRM Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Microsoft, the first application discloses techniques for controlling access to resources by hosted entities. Assigned to LG Electronics, the second application discloses techniques for controlling a mobile terminal.

Philips and Sony Ericsson DRM Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents address aspects of DRM. Assigned to Philips, the first patent concerns techniques for enhanced content resolution that also entail DRM.  Assigned to Sony Ericsson, the second patent concerns techniques for DRM based on device proximity.

CES 2010: DRM Is Alive And Well - Part 1

The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show was very upbeat, perhaps more so than two years ago (last year doesn't count given the economic implosion resulting in widespread malaise and depression). Of course the purpose of the these shows is to drum up excitement. 3D TV (not quite ready for prime time in my view, but I did not spend much time looking), Mobile, and Auto seemed to be the principal sectors leading the charge.

Having seen a lot of the show (at the expense of my feet), one conclusion is that rights management, broadly construed, is everywhere. In saying this, I'm taking a very expansive view of rights management to include both technical and non-technical--largely business model factors--means of protecting digital content. I'm excluding from consideration music CDs and related issues since there does not seem to be a good solution specific to the CD problem that is acceptable to privacy and consumer advocates.

In giving a few selected examples of how rights management is being further insinuated into services and business models, I'm leaving out many vendors (apologies to those not mentioned). I'm sure that critics will be able to find counter examples  My goal here is simply to identify trends.

Various parties with DRM and related solutions were at the show, including Irdeto and Digital Containers. HDMI Licensing had a booth as well. Metadata company Gracenote had a  booth that also highlighted customer applications. Executives from Widevine were in town but did not have a booth.

Media futurist Gerd Leonhard (among others) have long argued that the future of media is and should be streaming rather than downloading files. The 2010 CES makes it perfectly clear that the world is moving substantially toward media streaming. More in the next installment. 

Apple And NEC DRM Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of DRM. Assigned to Apple, the first application discloses techniques for protecting audio and video on media playback devices. Assigned to NEC, the second application discloses protecting digital content on mobile devices.

NetBarrage and Samsung DRM Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight applications address various aspects of DRM and copyright protection in mobile contexts. Assigned to NetBarrage (IL), the first application discloses a Peer to Peer file sharing mobile system with copyright protection. Assigned to Samsung, the second application discloses techniques for managing digital rights management contents in portable terminal.

Huawei Technologies and NHN Co DRM Patent Applications

On Thursdays that USPTO publishes new patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications address various aspects of DRM. Assigned to Huawei Technologies (CN), the first application discloses techniques for realizing accurate billing in digital rights management. Assigned to NHN Corporation (KR), the second application discloses ways of presenting advertising using free ring tones and DRM.

Open Source Meets Proprietary: Where's the Balance?

BusinessWeek has an article on open source and restrictive and/or proprietary technologies such as DRM. The article reports a discussion with Nokia's Dr. Ari Jaaksi:

Jaaksi, Nokia's vice president of software and head of the Finnish handset manufacturer's open-source operations, said: "We want to educate open-source developers. There are certain business rules [developers] need to obey, such as DRM, IPR [intellectual property rights], SIM locks and subsidised business models.... Why do we need closed vehicles? We do," he said. "Some of these things harm the industry but they're here [as things stand]. These are touchy, emotional issues but this dialogue is very much needed. As an industry, we plan to use open-source technologies but we are not yet ready to play by the rules; but this needs to work the other way round too."

Enterprise and Mobile DRM Mini-Roundup

Here's a roundup of various recent Enterprise and Mobile DRM stories:

Enterprise Rights Management software vendor Liquid Machines has announced adding  Dr. Renato A. DiPentima to their Board of Direrectors and achieving Microsoft Gold Partner Certification. Earlier this year they closed a $10M Series D equity financing,

Oracle's latest release of their Information Rights Management product (nee SealedMedia) is now available. The product protects sensitive information contained in emails.

SafeNet acquires Norweigen mobile DRM company Beep Science AS, according to this SafeNet press release.

Barcode Ticket Security - DRM Not

Masabi's Ben Whitaker wrote a most interesting article on Barcode security. Even those readers who don't usually care about such things should have a look; lots of interesting ideas there. Whitaker addresses security and DRM:

Anti-copying using DRM (Digital Rights Management)
However you deliver a barcode, it has to be presented in a scannable format, which means that an adversary can always scan the ticket, and if they want to, change some details on the barcode and create multiple copies without DRM. People that have barcode delivery systems that use or rely on "forward lock" or DRM to prevent the barcode image being sent from one person to another are being blind to the availability of barcode scanners to beat all of their software. Also consider that OMA DRM for forward locking images downloaded to phones places laughably little protection against an assailant armed with such exotic tools as a web-browser and a text editor.

Intertrust Announces Licensing Program for OMA and Marlin

Intertrust Technologies announced a new program for licensing its DRM patents for Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) and Marlin Digital Rights Management (DRM) based consumer devices and software. The licensing program will also include patents from Sony and Philips, Intertrust's parent companies.

[For ]...mobile phones, consumer electronics devices, and personal computers for €0.25 per unit. Distributors of PC software applications with OMA and/or Marlin functionality are also entitled to an annual cap of €400,000 on the €0.25 per unit royalty.

Apple Updates iPhone Frustrating Hackers

Apple provided updates to its popular iPhone that frustrates those who have hacked the phone in order to be able to use a network other than AT&T and/or to run unapproved applications. The NYTimes' Saul Hansell writes:

David Pogue, our technology reviewer, received a cautionary message last night from a person familiar with Apple’s plans after he posted a video showing some unofficial, but entertaining, applications that can be installed on the iPhone. Take those applications off your phones now, David was warned, or a software update scheduled for Thursday afternoon could turn your phone into a brick.

On Monday, Apple had issued a press release warning of “irreparable damage” to iPhones that have been modified or unlocked from the AT&T network. It also threatened users that “the permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone’s warranty.”

Cell Phones: Music, Sure, But Video?

The Boston Globe has a brief interview with Sprint Nextel's COO, Len Lauer regarding their investment in next generation wireless.

A couple of interesting points. First, will consumers pay $2.50 per tune rather than the iPod 99 cents simply for the privilege of copying, burning, etc.? The music industry seems to be assuming that each person will make 2.5 copies, on average, and that they want to be compensated for the extra 1.5 copies.

Second, will video on cell phones be bigger than music (audio)?  Does anyone really want to watch clips of the Patriots on their cell phone screen? I don't get it. Must be a generational disconnect. What's holding video back? DRM.

Snippets:

OMA Standards For Mobile DRM - A Deal?

According to Reuters, mobile operators and MPEG LA have agreed on licensing terms for the OMA DRM standard. Snippets:

The licensing deal is expected to kickstart a long-anticipated open standard for the protection of digital entertainment such as music, film and video, offering more choice to consumers without the lock-in of a proprietary system.

"The beginning of 2006, that's what we're expecting," said Larry Horn, vice president of licensing at MPEG LA, which represents the key patent holders of digital rights management (DRM) software used in the open standard proposed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).

Proposed Cell Phone Spec Targets Security

A number of companies, including Authentec, Ericsson, France Telecom, IBM, Infineon, Intel, Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Philips, Samsung, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, VeriSign, Vodaphone and Wave System, have banded together to deliver a hardware-security standard for cell phones, this according to a Security Pipeline article.  Snippets:

Sharing - The New Strategy In Wireless Content Protection

Dow Jones says, Cellular News reports, that DRM-enabled content sharing will be a big driver of industry growth. Snippets: