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:
Feb. 14, 2017
Filed:
Apr. 21, 2015
Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc., Arlington, VA (US);
Jianxiu Hao, Acton, MA (US);
Shailan Lala, Braintree, MA (US);
Pramod Kalyanasundaram, Acton, MA (US);
Michael R. Oliver, Hoboken, NJ (US);
VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC., Basking Ridge, NJ (US);
Abstract
An exemplary method includes virtual set-top box ('STB') device system receiving a registration request to register a mobile computing device to operate as a virtual STB device, verifying that the mobile computing device is within a predefined vicinity of a dedicated STB device that is located at a user premises, providing, to the mobile computing device, a virtual STB key for use by the mobile computing device to operate as the virtual STB device by leveraging access rights of an end-user account of a media content distribution service to access the media content distributed by way of the media content distribution service, and facilitating sharing of the virtual STB key with a media content processing device for use by the media content processing device to access the media content distributed by way of the media content distribution service. Corresponding systems and methods are also described.