Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

A new patent has been granted to ContentGuard, a provider of digital rights management technologies and solutions supported by Xerox and Microsoft. The “digital tickets” patent creates what its owners describe as a better way to track, access and distribute electronic content such as e-books, images, music and video.

A digital ticket is a code, embedded in a computer or in a plastic card similar to a credit card, that validates whether someone has certain rights to access specific digital content. For example, a person could use a digital ticket stored on a PC or other device to display an image, print a book or play music. When the ticket is presented, it is electronically "punched"' to indicate that a right was used.

Digital ticketing also permits the ticket information, including its "punches,'' to always be associated or transported with the content whether the content is e-mailed, downloaded or copied. This allows the content owner to be paid even if copies are made. The invention covers use of digital tickets on-line and off-line, such as a card that is inserted into a device.

A US district court ruling on the scope of a patent owned by digital music company the Intouch Group may threaten the on-line music industry’s attempts to offer music downloads. The court did not fully accept the argument put forward by Intouch that its patent covered almost all music downloads, but did acknowledge that it affected the download of music samples that were “substantially less” than the full length of music files.

A final decision on the scope of the patent will not be made until the trial which has been set for 15th April 2002. If the patent is upheld, Intouch may seek to impose licensing restrictions on music downloading services planned by companies such as AOL Time Warner and Amazon.com.

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