‘VI
`
`In
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`PROVISIONAL APPLICA TI0N FOR PA TENT C0 VER SHEET
`V353 %-—::
`E 61
`This is a request for filing a PROVISIONAL APPLICATION FOR PATENT under 37 CFR 1.53(c).
`f.)
`E
`_.—=N
`INVENTOR(S)
`C}
`Residence
`D E‘!
`||||l|
`(City and either State or Foreign Countrg
`Los Angeles, California
`Huntington Beach, Callifornia
`Torrance, California
`Rancho Palos Verdes, California
`
`Given Name (first and middle [if any])
`Xin
`Thahn
`Guillermo
`Eddie
`
`Family Name or Surname
`
`
`
`Separately numbered sheets attached hereto
`[I Additional inventors are being named on the
`TITLE OF THE INVENTION (280 characters max)
`
`META-RIGHTS
`
`Direct all correspondence to:
`E] C
`N b
`ustomer
`um Br
`
`OR
`
`Firm or
`Individual Name
`
`CORRESPONDENCE ADDRESS
`
`22204
`
`I
`
`Place Customer Number
`Bar Code Label here
`
`Type Customer Number here
`
`Marc S Kaufman
`'
`NIXON PEABODY LU’
`mo Greensboro Drive
`
`(703)790-9110
`ENCLOSED APPLICATION PARTS (check all that apply)
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`22102
`(703)883-0370
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`‘ 8
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`
`III Other (specify) '
`
`D Application Data Sheet. See 37 CFR 1.76
`METHOD OF PAYMENT OF FILING FEES FOR THIS PROVISIONAL APPLICATION FOR PATENT
`
`Applicant claims small entity status. Se 37 CFR 1.27.
`A check or money order is enclosed to cover the filing fees
`The Commissioner is hereby authorized to
`charge filing fees or credit any overpayment
`19-23 80
`to Deposit Account Number:
`El Payment by credit card. Form PTO-2038 is attached.
`The invention was made by an agency of the United States Government or under a contract with an agency of the United States
`Government.
`
`- FILING FEE
`AMOUNT ($)
`$16090
`
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`
`[I Yes, the name of the U.S. Government agency and the Government contract number are:
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`Respectfully sub
`m____.....,———
`SIGNATURE
`
`TYPED or PRINTED NAME Marc S. Kaufman
`
`Date
`
`11/20/2001
`
`REGISTRATION NO.
`(ifappropriate)
`
`Docket Number:
`
`35 =212
`
`11 1 325_90
`
`5
`'\r
`
`TELEPHONE 703-790-91 10
`USE ONLY FOR FILING A PROVISIONAL APPLICA TION FOR PA TENT
`This collection of information is required by 37 CFR 1 51 The inforrnation is used by the public to file (and by the PTO to process) a provisional application Confidentiality is govuncd
`by 35 U.S.C. 122 and 37 CFR 1.14. This collection is estimated to take 8 hours to complete, including gathering, preparing, and subrniiung the complete provisional application to the
`PTO Time will vary depending upon the individual case. Any comments on the amount oftime you require to complete this form and/or suggestions for reducing this burden, should be
`sent to the Chief Inforrnatjon Officer, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, US. Departruerit of Commerce, Washington, DC. 20231. DO NOT SEND FEES OR COMPLETED FORMS
`TO THIS ADDRESS. SEND TO: Box Provisional Application, Commissioner for Patents, Washington, D.C. 20231.
`
`NVA205489.l
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 1
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 1
`
`

`
`Inventors: Xin Wang; Thahn Ta; Guillermo Lao; Eddie Chen
`
`Meta-Rights
`
`Table of Contents
`
`TABLE OF CONTENTS. ...........................
`
`.........
`
`................
`
`.......... .. 1
`
`INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... .. 1
`
`EXAMPLES OF USING META-RIGHTS ........................................................... .. 1
`
`MULTI-TIER CONTENT DISTRIBUTION ..................................................................... ..2
`PRIVATE DOCUMENTS ....................................................................................... ..2
`POWER OF ATTORNEY ....................................................................................... ..2
`
`OVERVIEW OF PROCESS T0 EXERCISE META-RIGHTS ................................ .. 2
`
`THE CONCEPT OF LICENSE (XRML LICENSE) .............................................. .. 3
`
`SYSTEM FOR MANAGING AND EXERCISING META-RIGHTS ....................
`
`4
`
`BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE SYSTEM ....................................................................... ..5
`AUTHORIZATION PROCESS TO EXERCISE A META-RIGHT ............................................... ..6
`EXERCISING A META-RIGHT ................................................................................ ..7
`
`Introduction
`
`This application is related to United States patents 5,629,980, 5,634,012, 5,638,443,
`5,715,403 and 5,715,40,
`the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by
`reference, and initoduces the concept of meta-rights which is the rights that deal
`with, manipulate, modify, and derive other rights.
`
`Meta~rights include rights to offer, grant, obtain, transfer, delegate, track, Surrender,
`exchange, and revoke other rights. This includes the rights to modify any of the
`conditions associated with other rights. For example, the right to extend or reduce
`the scope, extend or reduce the validation period of a particular right.
`
`Meta-rights can be hierarchical and can be structured as objects within Objects. Just
`as rights can have conditions, meta-rights can also have conditions. Meta-rights can
`also be associated with meta-rights.
`
`The concept of meta-rights is useful because in a real world scenario, there are
`entities that are not interested in the digital content, but in manipulating the rights
`associated with the content. For example, in a multi-tier content distribution model,
`the intermediate entities (distributors) will not consume the content but will be given
`the right
`to issue rights for the content
`they distribute.
`In other words,
`the
`distributor or reseller will need to obtain rights to issue rights (meta-rights).
`
`Examples of using meta-rights
`
`
`
`
`CONTENTGUARD CONFIDENTIAL
`NVA205474.l
`
`PAGE 1 OF 8
`
`11/20/2001
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 2
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 2
`
`

`
`
`
`Multi-tier content distribution
`
`In a multi-tier content distribution system, there exist “middle—man” entities that do
`not consume or produce content. Their role is to distribute content and the rights
`associated with those content.
`
`Consider a model where a publisher publishes content, a distributor distributes
`content and a
`retailer sells content
`to a consumer. The publisher negotiates
`commerce deals with the distributor and the distributor negotiates business deals
`with the retailer. In a digital workflow that utilizes a system to control the access of
`content, content
`(in protected form) can travel
`from publishers to consumers
`through any digital mean. When the consumer wishes to access the content, he
`contacts the appropriate retailer and obtains a ‘‘license’’ that allows him/her to
`access the content. The license is where the rights are expressed.
`
`In this multi-tier scenario, the retailer will only issue the rights that have been
`predetermined by the distributor. For example, a distributor may specify that the
`retailer can only issue 500 licenses and the rights that the retailer can issue to a
`consumer can only be “view” and “print-once”. In other words, the distributor has
`issued meta—rights to the retailer. Similarly, the publisher will issue meta—rights to
`the distributor that will govern what kind (and how many) of rights can the
`distributor issue to retailers.
`
`Private Documents
`
`Consider a model where a person's medical records are in digital form and are
`managed by the affiliated hospital. In this scenario, the person gives authority to the
`hospital to access and update the medical records. Now consider that the person
`needs treatment at another hospital and wishes to transfer the records to the new
`establishment. The person will now grant the right to the affiliated hospital the right
`to transfer the access rights to the new hospital. In other words, the person has
`specified meta-rights.
`
`Consider a model where a person's will is in digital form and managed by a law firm.
`The will is to be kept in the law firm and no one should have access to it (besides the
`law firm and the author of the will). The person wishes to allow a neutral 3rd review
`of the will. The person issues a right to the law firm to issue access rights to this 3rd
`party. The person has specified meta-rights.
`
`Power of Attorney
`
`In a digital economy, specifying meta-rights is analogous to power—of-attorney.
`Suppose a person wishes to give another person the power of attorney to liquidate
`(sell) equity. The person issues the right for the right
`to sell certain financial
`instruments. The person has issued meta-rights.
`
`Overview of Process to Exercise Meta-Rights
`
`At a high level the process of exercising rights are the same for both usage rights
`and meta-rights. However the different between usage rights and meta-rights are
`the result from exercising the rights (or meta—rights). When exercising rights, actions
`result, for example viewing or using a digital content. With meta-rights new rights
`
`CONTENTGUARD CONFIDENTIAL
`NVA205474.1
`
`PAGE 2 OF 8
`
`11/20/2001
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 3
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 3
`
`

`
`are created or derived from the meta-rights as the result of exercising those rights.
`The recipient of the new rights may be the same principal (same person or same
`machine, etc), who exercises the meta-rights, or a new principal.
`
`The principals and/or the repositories who receive the derived rights must be
`authenticated and authorized before receiving/storing the derive rights. Thus the
`process of exercising a meta-right is the same as exercising an usage right
`
`The system in this invention incorporate ideas from other patents and invention
`proposals, especially the “State of Rights” invention and “During Conditions”
`invention which is used for the authorization processes.
`
`The following diagram describes the overall process of exercising meta-rights.
`
`Principal P, who requests
`to exercise the meta-rights
`
`Recipient R, who receives
`the new rights or derived rights
`
`For each new rights or derived rights
`
`
`
`"iii
`
`
`
`Access Denied
`
`Access Granted
`
`th
`.
`E
`C
`Xemse
`meta—n'ghts
`
`Teiminate
`with error
`
`.
`,
`_
`Rec1p1ent repos1tory store
`the derive rights
`
`No more new rights
`or derived rights
`
`Terminate with success
`
`Exercise meta-rights
`
`The concegt of License (XrML License)
`
`Like usage rights the representation of meta-rights in this invention is a XrML license
`(however the representation of meta-rights is not limited to XrML). An XrML License
`encapsulates the idea of specifying meta-rights.
`
`The structure of a license consists of a list of “grants” and one or more “digital
`signatures”. Each grand includes a specific granted meta-rights such as rights to
`offer (rights), grant (rights), obtain (rights),
`transfer (rights), exchange (rights),
`
`CONTENTGUARD CONFIDENTIAL
`NVA205474.1
`
`PAGE 3 OF 8
`
`11/20/2001
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 4
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 4
`
`

`
`reuse
`revoke (rights)
`(rights),
`surrender
`(rights), exercise (rights),
`transport
`(rights), or management meta-rights such as the rights to backup (rights), restore
`(rights), recover (rights), reissue (rights), escrow the rights for management meta-
`rights, etc.
`
`The structure of the grant also includes one or more principals -who the specified
`meta-rights are granted to, a list of conditions and state variables. Like usage rights
`access and exercise the granted meta-rights are controlled by the condition list and
`state variables.
`
`the access and exercise a given rights have been
`Various systems to control
`described in our previous patents United States patents 5629980, 5634012,
`5638443, 5715403 and 5715403 and pending provisional applications for “State of
`Rights” and “During—Condition” inventions. The integrity of the license is ensured by
`the use of digital signature as an element of the structure of the license. Structure
`of digital signature includes signature itself, the method of how the signature is
`computed, the key information needed to verify the signature and also the issuer
`identification. The following diagram describes a structure of a
`license that
`represents the list of meta-rights granted to an authenticable principle.
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`License
`
`
`
`License id
`
`Grant [1 ..n]
`Granted rights
`Principle, who is
`granted the rights
`Condition list and
`State variables
`
`Digital signature
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Following is the example in XrML describing how to map the above license structure
`into a specific implementation.
`
`System for managing and exercising meta-rights
`
`The major functions provided by the system in this invention are to manage the
`meta-rights and its derived rights.
`
`Managing and exercising meta-rights include these two processes:
`
`- The authorization process for exercising a given meta-right and
`
`o The process of exercising the meta-rights
`
`CONTENTGUARD CONFIDENTIAL
`NVA205474.1
`
`PAGE 4 OF 8
`
`11/20/2001
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 5
`
`
`
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 5
`
`

`
`l 1
`
`,
`
`l E
`
`.l
`
`l l l
`
`Managing the rights, which are derived from exercising the meta-rights, includes the
`process of authorization of the recipient principal and recipient repository, and the
`storage of the derived rights to the repository. This system utilizes the “State of
`Rights” system and “During-Condition” system from their corresponding invention.
`
`Building Blocks of the System
`
`The building blocks for the system consists of the following components:
`
`o
`
`-
`
`a
`
`license, and also provide the
`License Interpreter — Validate and interpret
`functions to query all fields in the license such as meta-rights, condition list,
`state variable, principle whose meta-rights is granted, and/or digital signature
`
`licenses and the repository to store the
`License Manager — Manages all
`license, and also provides functions to create license for derived rights, verify
`license, store license, retrieve license and transfer license.
`
`State of Rights — Manages the state and history of rights for meta-rights. This
`component is defined in the State of Rights invention proposal. The current
`value and history of the State of Rights together with the Condition List
`controls
`the permission to exercise a given meta-rights
`for
`a given
`authenticated principal.
`
`o Condition Validator — Verifies conditions associated with the meta-rights.
`Together with state of rights, conditions associated with meta-rights are
`variables whose values may change over the lifetime of the met-rights.
`Values of conditions affect the meta-rights at the time and during the time
`the rights is exercised. This property where the conditions and states values
`change over time is the basic foundation for dynamic rights from which the
`behavior of the granted rights depended on.
`
`- Authorization — Authorizes the request to exercise meta-rights and to store
`the newly created rights or derived rights as the result of exercising the
`meta-rights. The authorization component consists of both state of rights
`component and condition Validator. The authorization component
`interacts
`with license manager for the list of state variables of the state of rights and
`conditions list and then pass the state variables to the state of
`rights
`component and condition list to the condition Validator for authorization. This
`component also monitors and updates the history of the state of rights during
`the exercise of the requested rights.
`
`o Meta—rights Manager — Main component of the system. Responsible to verify
`the license and rights, to authorize the request to exercise a rights, to create
`new rights or derives rights from the meta-rights, and to update the state of
`rights and the current value of the conditions.
`
`0 Rights Manager — Manages the new rights created or the derived rights as the
`result of exercising the meta-rights. Rights Manager uses the authorization
`component to verify that if the recipient and/or the repository for the newly
`created rights or derived rights.
`If the recipient and the repository are
`authorized then the Rights Manager asks the license manager to store the
`newly created rights or the derived rights.
`
`The following diagram shows the components for a system to manage and exercise
`meta-rights
`
`
`
`-
`
`CONTENTGUARD CONFIDENTIAL
`NVA205474.1
`
`PAGE 5 OF 8
`
`11/20/2001
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 6
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 6
`
`

`
`Meta-rights manager
`
`Rights manager
`{created rights, derived rights)
`
`State of
`Rights
`
`Condition
`Validator
`
`State ofrights repository
`
`License Repository
`
`
`
`
`Authorization Process to exercise a meta-right
`
`One of the two processes in managing and exercising meta-rights consist of the
`authorization process. The following describes the process of authorization to
`exercise a meta-right
`
`(1) The request for exercising a meta-right is passed to the meta-rights manager
`component.
`
`(2) Given that the requestor has been authenticated, the meta-rights manager
`component requests the License Manager component to verify the license for
`exercising the requested meta-rights. License Manager verifies the digital
`signature of the license and the key of the signer. If the key of the signer is
`trusted and the digital signature is verified then the License Manager returns
`“verified” to the Meta—Rights Manager. Otherwise “not verified” is returned.
`
`the verified license is then passed to the
`(3) Once the license is verified,
`authorization component for authorization. The authorization will check for
`both state of rights and conditions.
`(4) The authorization manager requests the License Manager for the state of
`rights and condition list. Whether the request for exercising a meta-right is
`authorized or not depends on the current value and history of state of rights
`and the values of the condition list.
`
`(5) The authorization manager passes the state variables of the state of rights to
`the state of rights component for verification. State of rights component
`returns the current value and/or history of state variable, and the valid or
`
`CONTENTGUARD CONFIDENTIAL
`NVA205474.1
`
`PAGE 6 OF 8
`
`11/20/2001
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 7
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 7
`
`

`
`invalid state of rights to the authorization component. If the state of rights is
`valid then the authorization manager continues with step (6)
`
`(6) With a valid state of rights the authorization component passes the condition
`list
`to the condition validator. The condition validator
`returns to the
`authorization component the status of the condition list —valid or invalid— and
`the current value of each condition. If all conditions in the condition list are
`verified and valid then the authorization manager continue in step (7) with
`the “authorized” return.
`
`(7) Authorization component returns to the Meta-Rights manager component the
`status of the request —either “authorized” or “not-authorized”.
`
`License
`
`Request to exercise (1)
`
`Meta_RightS
`Manager
`
`.
`
`.
`
`License Manager
`
`Valid license (3)
`
`Authori /Fail (7)
`
`Authorization
`Component
`
`Request for
`State variables
`‘ nd condition
`ist (4)
`
`License Manager
`
`
`
`State Variables (5)
`
`State of Rights
`Component
`
`State of Rights
`Repository, or
`Remote service
`
`Condition list (6)
`
`Condition
`Validator
`
`Request to exercise a meta-rights
`
`Exercising a meta-right
`
`The other process in managing and exercising meta-rights consist of the exercise of
`the meta-right. Once the request to exercise a meta-right has been authorized, the
`following diagram describes the process of exercising a meta-rights.
`
`CONTENTGUARD CONFIDENTIAL
`NVA205474.1
`
`PAGE 7 OF 8
`
`11/20/2001
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 8
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 8
`
`

`
`Exercise meta-rights
`
`State of Rights
`component
`
`The meta-rights manager requests the state of rights component to
`(11)
`start exercising the target meta-rights. State of rights then records the usage
`history and changes its current value according to the set of state variable.
`(12)
`The meta—rights manager exercises the target meta-rights.
`If new
`rights or derived rights are created, then the Meta-Rights manager continues
`with step (13) otherwise it commits the meta-rights for exercise in step (15).
`
`License Manager is invoked to create new rights or derived rights as
`(13)
`the result of exercising the target meta-rights.
`
`Each new right or derived right is then sent to the corresponding rights
`(14)
`manager of the recipient and stored in the recipient's repository. The rights
`manager of the recipient will authenticate and authorize the recipient before
`receiving and storing the newly created right or derived right. The recipient of
`the new right or derived right may be the one who exercises the meta-rights.
`
` a
`
`
`
`CONTENTGUARD CONFIDENTIAL
`NVA205474.1
`
`PAGE 8 OF 8
`
`11/20/2001
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 9
`
`Petitioner Apple Inc. - Ex. 1017, p. 9