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.

Date of Patent:
Jul. 01, 2003

Filed:

May. 01, 2000
Applicant:
Inventors:

Takayuki Ogawa, Saitama, JP;

Hideo Okamoto, Saitama, JP;

Hidehiko Takase, Saitama, JP;

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01M 8/04 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01M 8/04 ;
Abstract

According to the present invention, access to a password area in a nonvolatile memory cannot be granted by simple supply of an address in a normal order. According to one preferable mode, for instance, a trap address is set in the password area so that reading information from the password area is permitted only when the password area is accessed without accessing the trap address, whereas when the password area is accessed the trap address, whereas when the password area is access through the trap address, information reading is inhibited, or meaningless data is output or the information in the password area is destroyed. This invention can make it harder to gain access to a password area which is used to protect against illegitimate copying and can provide a nonvolatile memory having a stronger copy protection capability.


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