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:
Sep. 14, 2004
Filed:
Dec. 20, 1999
Steven T. Ansell, Fremont, CA (US);
Andrew R. Cherenson, Los Altos, CA (US);
Leon Rishniw, San Francisco, CA (US);
Susan A. Cannon, San Jose, CA (US);
Edward J. Allard, San Francisco, CA (US);
Jason S. Brownell, San Francisco, CA (US);
Micah Stroud, San Jose, CA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
Content such as computer software, data representing audiovisual works, and electronic documents can converted from a machine-bound state to user-bound state without modification to the content data itself. Instead, keys used to access the content are converted from the machine-bound state to the user-bound state. In particular, the keys are kept in a passport data structure which can represent either a machine-binding or a user-binding. A machine-bound passport can be upgraded to a user-bound passport without modifying the bound content. The private key of the machine-bound passport, in cleartext form, is included in the user-bound passport and encrypted using a user-supplied password to bind the private key to the user. In addition, private user information is collected and verified and included in the user-bound passport. Upgrading a machine-bound passport can be initiated automatically upon detection that an attempt is made to play back machine-bound content on a machine other than the one to which the content is bound.