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:
Nov. 15, 2005
Filed:
Dec. 20, 2001
William C. Hein, Iii, Glenmoore, PA (US);
William C. Hein, III, Glenmoore, PA (US);
Digimarc Corporation, Beaverton, OR (US);
Abstract
A watermark embedded in a content (e.g., a printed document, digital audio, etc.) includes data that associates the content with a remote store of related data. For example, an image watermark may contain an index value that identifies a database record specifying (a) the owner's name; (b) contact information; (c) license terms and conditions, (d) copyright date, (e) whether adult content is depicted, etc., etc. Or a magazine advertisement may contain an index value that identifies a database record specifying a related URL. Sometimes there are several back-and-forth exchanges between the decoding device and the database. To speed response time, it is desirable that this traffic be exchanged with a database that is located close—in network proximity—to the device that decodes the watermark. In one embodiment this is accomplished by first querying a master database with the zip code, or other identifier, of the decoding device. The first database then responds by identifying a second, nearby database with which further traffic should be exchanged.