Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Google Inc.

Anand Paka

Clifford Paul Strom

Kedarnath Atmaram Dubhashi

Eduardo P Oliveira

Paul Brian Moody

Alexandre Vicktorovich Grigorovitch

Patrik Schnell

Maricia Scott

Vikas Sukla

Mayuresh Saoji

Satvir Randhawa

Mark L Beaubien

James Morris Alkove

Anders Edgar Klemets

Brian Patrick Evans

Adrian J Oney

Daniel Rosenstein

Richard D Prologo

Sanjay Bhatt

Yu Lin Sie

Yuqiang Guan

Pan Gu

Andre Rohe

Nicholas Jie Fang

Troy Batterberry

Benjamin Brooks Cutter, Jr

Alex McKelvey

Richard Louis Gingras

Eduardo Oliveria

Alex Mckelvey

Techniques enable creation of a preview license for digital content. In some instances, the preview license indicates that it allows a content-consuming device to consume less than all of the content. This preview license may create a list specifying multiple portions of the digital content that the content-consuming device may consume. These techniques may also present to a device user an offer to purchase rights to consume all of the digital content after consumption of the preview-licensed portion(s). In other instances, a content server may embed the preview license into a content package that contains the digital content, allowing the server to distribute the package to multiple devices. In still other instances, the preview license may be bound to a domain rather than to individual devices. This allows member devices to share the digital content and the preview license, such that each member device may enjoy the preview experience.

Content preview

In one aspect, a method includes receiving a query, identifying search results in response to the query, grouping the search results into one or more clusters, identifying similarities across the one or more clusters, determining a related topic associated with the query based on the similarities of the one or more clusters, determining a categories associated with the query, identifying supplemental information based on the related topic and the category, and providing the search results and the supplemental information for display in response to the query.

Providing supplemental information in news search

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for automatic generation of news digests. One of the methods includes accessing a database storing news snapshots, each snapshot identifying a predetermined quantity of top news stories for a period of time, each of the top news stories in a particular snapshot for a particular period of time ranked according to an importance score that measures the importance of the news story relative to other news stories for the particular period of time, determining a digest time period, determining, for the digest time period, all of the snapshots with periods of time included in the digest time period, generating, from the top news stories in the determined snapshots, a digest ranking of digest news stories, and providing, to a user device, data identifying one or more of the digest news stories for presentation according to the digest ranking.

Automated news digest

A method and computer system for determining a reputation threshold requirement for participating in a collaboration session. A determination is made whether a reputation of a user satisfies the reputation threshold requirement for the collaboration session. Access to the collaboration session is enabled if the reputation of the user satisfies the reputation threshold requirement for the collaboration session. Access to the collaboration session is disabled if the reputation of the user fails to satisfy the reputation threshold requirement for the collaboration session.

Reputation based collaboration session

Various embodiments enable so-called extended data to be added to a signed digital certificate without having a private key of a Certification Authority available. In at least some embodiments, a request to add extended data to a digital certificate generated by a certificate authority is received from a client device. The digital certificate includes a signed first portion, and an unsigned second portion that includes reserved empty spaces that are reserved for the extended data. The extended data is added to the unsigned second portion. the extended data includes a client ID associated with the client device. The unsigned portion of the digital certificate is signed after the extended data is added.

Extended data signing

Techniques enable building a collection of data that defines an asset, with the data possibly having differing data types. These techniques are then capable of assigning arbitrary policy to that asset, regardless of which data types are present within the asset. In addition, these techniques enable packaging of this first asset with one or more additional assets in a self-contained envelope. Each asset within the envelope may similarly include data of differing data types. Furthermore, each of these assets may be assigned a policy that may be different than the policy assigned to the first asset. This envelope, or a collection of envelopes, may then be provided to a content-consuming device to consume the assets in accordance with each asset's specified policy.

Managing digital rights for multiple assets in an envelope

Various embodiments enable so-called extended data to be added to a signed digital certificate without having a private key of a Certification Authority available. In at least some embodiments, a digital certificate can be issued and signed off line by the Certification Authority, and then later extended data can be added and signed using another key, whose public key was earlier embedded and signed in the certificate.

Systems and/or methods ('tools') are described that enable a digital rights management policy to be associated with digital media having an arbitrary content type or transfer control protocol. In some embodiments, the tools encrypt data segments of a media file and add a descriptor to each of those segments. These descriptors can enable a receiver of the encrypted media file to decrypt the file and consume it according to the correct digital rights management policy.

Protecting digital media of various content types

Various embodiments utilize methods of protecting content, such as Digital Rights Management (DRM), to enable secure playback of content on machines and devices within a local network, such as a home media network. In at least some embodiments, messages and content are delivered using, respectively, a control protocol for streaming and a transport protocol. In at least some embodiments, the control protocol for streaming is Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), and the transport protocol is Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP).

Carrying protected content using a control protocol for streaming and a transport protocol

A sequence of content keys are shared between a receiver of pieces of digital content and a computing device upon which the content is to be rendered. The receiver encrypts each piece of content according to a corresponding content key in the sequence and forwards the encrypted content to the computing device and the computing device decrypts the encrypted content according to the corresponding content key. The receiver initially transmits to the computing device an initialization digital license with an initial content key (CK) therein. Each of the receiver and the computing device derive a new content key (CKx) in the sequence from the initial content key (CK()) in the sequence on an as-needed basis and in a coordinated fashion. The initialization license is required only once for the sequence of content keys, and the receiver need not explicitly communicate (CKx) to the computing device for each piece of content.

Rights management system for streamed multimedia content

A method of registering network devices in a digital rights management system (DRMS) includes receiving a digital certificate transmitted by the network device requesting registration and verifying the validity of the certificate. The DRMS may then send cryptographic information to the applying network device. The network device may be authorized for registration via a user interface to the DRMS. The DRMS may conduct a proximity test to determine of the network device is proximate to the DRMS. If the certificate is validated, authorization is received, and the proximity test indicates that the network device is proximate to the DRMS, the network device may be registered. A registered network device is then authorized to play protected digital content.

Method and system for device registration within a digital rights management framework

A sink sends a registration request to a source and the source validates same, and the source sends a registration response including a secret to the sink. The source then sends a proximity message including a nonce to the sink and concurrently notes a start time. The sink employs the secret and the nonce to generate a proximity value and sends same to the sources. The source receives the proximity value and concurrently notes an end time, verifies the proximity value based on the secret and the nonce, calculates from the noted start and end times an elapsed time, compares the elapsed time to a predetermined threshold value, decides from the comparison whether the sink satisfies the proximity requirement, and registers the sink as being able to access content from such source if the sink satisfies the proximity requirement.

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Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Anand Paka