US 5,892,900 · Granted 1999-04-06

The 1999 Patent That Tried to Lock Down Digital Rights

Imagine buying a song online and the seller could control exactly how many times you play it, or on which devices. This patent describes a system that creates secure digital vaults inside computers to track and limit how people use electronic content—protecting sellers' rights while potentially limiting what buyers can do with their purchases.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The patent covers a secure digital environment built into computers that monitors and controls how electronic information (like music, documents, or software) is accessed and used. What's protected here is the underlying system architecture—the secure subsystems, the monitoring mechanisms, and the methods for enforcing restrictions on digital content throughout a chain of distribution and use. Competitors couldn't freely copy this approach to metering, tracking, or limiting access to digitally stored or shared information without infringing.

Why it matters

This patent staked out early territory in digital rights management, a field that became crucial as the internet exploded in the late 1990s and 2000s. Intertrust Technologies was exploring how to let companies sell digital goods while preventing unauthorized copying or use—a problem that music labels, software makers, and publishers all desperately wanted solved. Though the specific technologies described here didn't dominate the market, the patent represents a foundational attempt to build trust and control into the digital economy itself.

Real-world use

When you buy a movie on iTunes and it only plays on your Apple devices, or when a subscription service stops working after your membership expires, you're experiencing the kind of digital rights control systems this patent aimed to enable.

Original USPTO abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for electronic commerce including secure transaction management and electronic rights protection. Electronic appliances such as computers employed in accordance with the present invention help to ensure that information is accessed and used only in authorized ways, and maintain the integrity, availability, and/or confidentiality of the information. Secure subsystems used with such electronic appliances provide a distributed virtual distribution environment (VDE) that may enforce a secure chain of handling and control, for example, to control and/or meter or otherwise monitor use of electronically stored or disseminated information. Such a virtual distribution environment may be used to protect rights of various participants in electronic commerce and other electronic or electronic-facilitated transactions. Secure distributed and other operating system environments and architectures, employing, for example, secure semiconductor processing arrangements that may establish secure, protected environments at each node. These techniques may be used to support an end-to-end electronic information distribution capability that may be used, for example, utilizing the "electronic highway.

Patent details

Publication number: US 5,892,900
Filing date: 1996-08-30
Grant date: 1999-04-06
Assignee: Intertrust Technologies Corp.
Inventor(s): GINTER; KARL L., SHEAR; VICTOR H., SIBERT; W. OLIN, SPAHN; FRANCIS J., VAN WIE; DAVID M.
CPC class: G06Q20/12

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