Konica Minolta Laboratory U.s.a., Inc.

Panasonic Corporation

Rabindra Pathak

Kyohei Shiraishi

Tsuyoshi Tanaka

Philippe Rene Morin

Daniel Barber

Peter Veprek

Kem Gallione

Katsuyuki Taima

David Asao

Akinori Yamamoto

Aleksandr Oshurkov

A hybrid digital rights management (DRM) system includes a hybrid digital rights management server (RMS server) connected to first and second RMS servers and a client computer. The hybrid RMS server stores a policy mapping table that maps its DRM policies to remote DRM policies on the first or second RMS servers, and can also create policies that satisfy the schema requirements of the first or second RMS server using policies stored in the hybrid RMS server. When the hybrid RMS server receives a document protection request from the client computer, it extracts the filename extension for the document to be protected, and uses the filename extension to select one of the first and second RMS servers as a target RMS server. The document is protected by the target RMS server, and also added to a protected document database on the hybrid RMS server.

Hybrid digital rights management system and related document protection method

A digital rights management system includes two digital rights management servers (RMS servers) connected to a client computer. The two RMS servers implement different but related digital rights management (DRM) policies, with the first RMS server implementing conventional DRM policies and the second RMS server implementing extended DRM policies. An application program on the client computer interacts with a document on the client computer, and communicates with the first RMS server to obtain access authorization for the document. A plug-in program in the client computer cooperates with the application program, and communicates with the second RMS server to obtain additional access authorization for the document. Access to the document is granted when both RMS servers grant access to the document. This achieves extended digital rights management control which can provide a more flexible access control than that provided by existing DRM systems.

Hybrid digital rights management system and related document access authorization method

A server in a digital rights management system implements version control for the digital documents being managed. Each document belongs to a document series and has a version number. The server maintains a version control database table that stores, for each document, the document series name and version number, and parameters indicating whether the document is obsoleted or deleted. When registering a new document, based on auto-obsolete and auto-delete parameters inputted by the user, the server automatically obsoletes or deletes certain older version documents that belong to the same series as the new document. The server controls access to the documents so that obsoleted documents will not be accessible to users even if they still have local copies of such documents. When a user requests access to an older version document that is not obsoleted, the server may allow access to the latest version document instead.

Digital rights management system implementing version control

A digital rights management (DRM) method for protecting digital documents, implemented in a DRM system. When an operator (document publisher) scans a document on a scanner to generates a digital document and specifies a list of users who will be granted access rights to the document, the DRM system applies digital rights protection to the document according to the specified access rights, and distributes the document to the specified users; the system also sends a confirmation notification such as an email to the document publisher, which contains a list of the receiving users, a copy of the protected digital document, and a link to a web-based tool that will allow the publisher to modify the access rights granted to the users. In addition, when applying digital rights protection, the DRM system specifies the publisher as a user who will have access rights to the document.

Digital rights management system with confirmation notification to document publisher during document protection and distribution

In a digital rights management system, layers are defined for each document and user permissions are specified for each layer, to control user access at the layer-level. The layers are ordered by depth, where a layer completely contained inside another layer is deemed deeper than the other layer. The layers are encrypted in a deep-to-shallow order, each by its own encryption key. The entire document is then encrypted. When a user requests access to a document, the system generates an ordered sequence of encryption keys based on the user's access rights for each layer. The document open program on the user's client computer attempts to decrypt the various layers using the ordered sequence of keys. The client program and the system's key sequence generating algorithm are designed to give the result that only layers that the user has access to are successfully decrypted and displayed at document open time.

Access control for selected document contents using document layers and access key sequence

Methods for managing contents of multiple digital documents for individual users, to generate aggregated documents from multiple documents and/or create associations among multiple documents, based on the user's interactions with multiple digital documents. A document content aggregation method can, on a personalized basis, aggregate contents from multiple digital documents into an aggregated document based on a user's past interactions with the documents. The aggregation is based on a content importance score calculated from the user interaction pattern. A document association method can, on a personalized basis, create associations among multiple digital documents based on the user's past interactions with the documents. Two documents are deemed related if there is a user interaction pattern where the user interacts with both documents with a predetermined time interval from each other. When displaying one document, link icons are displayed to allow the user to directly navigate to the related documents.

Personalized document content aggregation and document association implemented in a digital rights management system

A method for managing users' digital rights to documents protected by digital rights management (DRM), comprising the steps of a rights management system (RMS) server receiving a request from a user for accessing a DRM-protected document, and the RMS server executing a user centric adaptor (UCA) module to check in a UCA database under the user's identification (ID) whether one of a limited number of predetermined policies of digital rights is added to the user's ID, whereas if the user's rights to the document is not revoked by deletion of a predetermined policy under the user's ID in the UCA database, then the UCA module does not block granting the user's request.

User centric method and adaptor for digital rights management system

In a digital rights management system, a rights management server sends event notifications to certain users when other users perform certain actions (read, print, copy, etc.) on documents managed by the system. For each document, a notification rule defines which users will receive what event notifications for that document. The notification rule is determined based on document access permissions possessed by the users, so that only users who have permission to perform an action on the document will receive notifications when other users perform that action on the document, while users with no permission to perform an action will not receive notifications when other users perform that action. The server also allows the users who have permission to perform an action to opt out of the notifications. The server monitors events that occur on the documents, and sends event notifications to appropriate users according to the notification rules.

Digital rights management system providing event notifications for user actions based on access control rules

A digital rights management (DRM) method for protecting emails can apply different protection policies to different components of an email such as the message body and the attached digital files. While an email application of the client encrypts the entire email document including both the message and the attachments, a plugin module on the client obtains user input regarding the DRM policies to be applied to individual attachments and then transmits the encrypted email along with the information about the DRM policies for the individual attachments to a digital rights management server. The server first decrypts the entire email document, then applies the user-specified DRM policies to the attachments individually. The server re-composes an email and attaches the individually protected attachments, and transmits the email to the exchange server.

Digital rights management for emails and attachments

A user interface display method implemented on a computer-controlled device to allow an operator to define a list of selected items among a plurality of items available for selection. The operator starts by selecting a pre-existing list containing a number of selected items. A modified list is generated which initially contains the same items as the pre-existing list. The device displays all of the items available for selection, as well as first and second indications associated with each item initially in the modified list. Then, in response to operator inputs to add items to (or remove items from) the modified list, second indications are displayed (or removed from display) in association with the items to be added (or removed), without changing the display of any of the first indications and any of the plurality of items. The modified list is saved without changing the pre-existing list.

User interface method for modifying a selection list of items to add or remove items while indicating original selection

A method implemented in a system including a copier or scanner connected to a digital rights management (DRM) server, which can prevent unauthorized copy or scan while allowing authorized users to obtain high quality hardcopies or scans. After the copier or scanner scans an input hardcopy document, the server determines whether the scanned document image matches any protected document in the DRM system. If a match is found, and the server determines that the user is permitted to copy or distribute the document, the server transmits an electronic version of the matched document from the DRM system to the copier or user-selected email recipients, so that the user or the email recipients can receive a high quality document. If a matched document is found but the user is not permitted to copy or distribute it, the copier or scanner deletes the scanned document image without printing or saving it.

Method of preventing unauthorized copy and scan and facilitating authorized copy and scan of protected documents

A method for automating the management and interpretation of digital documents and their rights metadata to generate user access of a document protected by digital rights management (DRM), comprising the steps of a server obtaining a digital document and its associated rights metadata, the server interpreting the metadata to ascertain DRM useful information including identifications (IDs) of the document and its users and associated digital rights, and the server generating entries for a DRM database including policies associated with the document ID and users IDs based on the ascertained DRM useful information to enable DRM protection to the document.

Method for automating the management and interpretation of digital documents and their owners rights metadata for generating digital rights management protected contents

A method for servicing messages with digital documents accessed and displayed by a client application, including the steps of establishing a database of message queues each associated with one or more digital documents and containing one or more messages, and upon authorizing a user's request for accessing and using a digital document, providing a message queue associated with the digital document.

Messaging administration based on digital rights management services

In a digital rights management system where a scanner is connected to a rights management server, the process of applying digital rights protection is performed by the scanner, rather than the server, so that scanning and document protection can be done even when the server is not available. Upon scanning a document, the operator selects a rights management policy to be applied to the digital document. The scanner generates a document ID, embeds the document ID as metadata in the document, encrypts the document, and stores the document ID, policy ID of the selected policy, and encryption key as an entry in a local document-policy association table on the scanner. The scanner uploads the above information of the digital document to the server, which stores the information in a document-policy association table on server and uses it to perform document access control.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Rabindra Pathak