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. 28, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 04, 1995
Shigeyuki Itoh, Kawasaki, JP;
Iwao Aizawa, Yokohama, JP;
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In a fee charging system for video information, scramble signals including video information and charging information can be recorded on a recording media such that the signals are read later therefrom. The recording of the scramble signals is free of charge. In an operation to reproduce original unscrambled video signals from the signals read from the media by a recording and reproducing apparatus, the charging information is detected to conduct a charging process. Consequently, although the scrambled signals may be freely copied onto another recording media, the charging process is executed for each copying operation. First charging information and second charging information other than the first charging information are arranged with the video information. The video information includes first video information as main video information and second video information. The first charging information is added to the first video information, whereas the second charging information is added to the second video information. A charging process is executed by a charge processing unit according to the charging information. When the second charging information is detected, the charging process is accomplished according to the second charging information in the charge processing unit.