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:
May. 06, 2008
Filed:
Jun. 26, 2003
Jason Charles Pelly, Reading, GB;
Daniel Warren Tapson, Basingstoke, GB;
Jason Charles Pelly, Reading, GB;
Daniel Warren Tapson, Basingstoke, GB;
Sony United Kingdom Limited, Weybridge, GB;
Abstract
A system for watermarking and distributing material includes a data processing apparatus, which operates as a watermark encoder. The data processing apparatus is operable to process an original material item to form a reduced-bandwidth-version of the material item, marked with a code word from a predetermined set of code words. The data processing apparatus is operable to form an impaired version of the material item from which a marked representation of the original material item can be formed. The impaired version is formed by subtracting the reduced-bandwidth-version of the material item from a copy of the original material item. As such, the impaired version can be mass distributed, but a representation of the original material item cannot be formed without the reduced-bandwidth-version of the material item. By watermarking the reduced-bandwidth-versions, a representation of the material item, formed by combining one of the marked reduced-bandwidth-versions with the impaired material item, can be uniquely identified. However, only a low bandwidth part of the material item need be watermark encoded, which is more easily distributable to individual recipients than watermarked copies of the original material item.