The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 07, 1990
Filed:
Nov. 22, 1989
Charles B Bestler, Chicago, IL (US);
Richard W Citta, Oak Park, IL (US);
Paul M Gosc, Buffalo Grove, IL (US);
Zenith Electronics Corporation, Glenview, IL (US);
Abstract
A method of operating a pay per view television system in which the television signal includes a program tag and an IPPV tag identifying memory locations in subscriber authorization memories. A subscriber can self-authorize his terminal decoder to unscramble a pay per view program with a password that inputs a '1' to the memory location identified by the IPPV tag. The program tag is changed to indicate the memory location identified by the IPPV tag, thus enabling subscribers who bought the program to unscramble the signal. The head-end periodically polls each subscriber terminal to determine the status of the second memory location and to reset it to '0' after the pay per view event.