Demarcated digital content and method for creating and processing demarcated digital works

• US 20020184159A1
• Filed: 05/31/2001
• Published: 12/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ContentGuard Holdings, Inc. (Pendrell Corporation)
• Original Assignee: ContentGuard Holdings, Inc. (Pendrell Corporation)
• Inventors: Wang, Xin, Tadayon, Bijan, Raley, Michael C., Ta, Thanh T., Nahidipour, Aram, Lao, Guillermo
• Granted Patent: US 6,973,445 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/54
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction

Abstract

Flags are used to mark portions of content in a digital work to permit marking or demarcation of portions of the document. The demarcated portions can be handled in various ways. For example, different usage rights can be applied to demarcated portions, the demarcated portionis can be culled for use as a summary, or the like. The flags can be used to demarcate portions of content that has been downloaded to keep track of payment and download status and thus add flexibility to electronic distribution of content. A flag usage rights element can be attached to limit and control access to flags in a desired manner.

Claims

1. A digital work recorded on computer readable media, said digital work comprising:

a content element including content data stored in an addressable memory to be utilized by an end user;

a content usage rights element associated with said content element and including data specifying usage rights for said content element; and

a flag element associated with said content element and having memory registers for saving flags, said memory registers corresponding to memory addresses of the addressable memory.

2. A digital work as recited in claim 1, further comprising, a flag usage rights element associated with said flag element and including data specifying rights for manipulating said flag element.

3. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said flag element has flags stored therein at selected memory registers to demarcate a desired portion of said content data stored in memory addresses corresponding to the selected memory registers.

4. A digital work as recited in claim 3, wherein said flags comprise start flags and end flags to respectively indicate the beginning and end of said desired portion of said content data.

5. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said flag element has a flag stored therein at a selected memory register and said flag comprises links to additional content data.

6. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said content element is stored on a first computer readable medium and said flag element is stored on a second computer readable medium.

7. A digital work as recited in claim 6, wherein said first computer readable medium is on a first device and said second computer readable medium is on a second device and wherein said first device and said second device are operatively coupled by a communication channel.

8. A digital work as recited in claim 7, wherein said communication channel comprises the Internet.

9. A digital work as recited in claim 7, wherein said flags are stored in selected registers to demarcate a portion of said content data that has been downloaded to said first device.

10. A digital work as recited in claim 1, wherein said content element is a laboratory notebook.

11. A digital work as recited in claim 3, wherein said content usage rights element specifies a first set of usage rights for the desired portion and a second set of usage rights for other portions.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, further comprising associating a flag usage rights element with the flag element, the flag usage rights element including data specifying rights for said manipulating step.

14. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein said manipulating step comprises storing flags in the flag element at selected memory registers to demarcate the desired portion of said content data.

15. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein said manipulating step comprises storing start flags and end flags in the flag element to respectively indicate the beginning and end of the desired portions of the content data.

16. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein manipulating step comprises storing flags having links to additional content data.

17. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein said content element is stored on a first computer readable medium and said flag element is stored on a second computer readable medium.

18. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein the first computer readable medium is on a first device and the second computer readable medium is on a second device and wherein the first device and the second device are operatively coupled by a communication channel.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein said communication channel comprises the Internet.

20. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein said manipulating step comprises storing flags in memory registers to demarcate a portion of said content that has been downloaded to said first device.

21. A method as recited in claim 14, further processing the desired portions.

22. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein said processing step comprises filtering the desired portion.

23. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein said processing step comprises compressing the desired portion.

24. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein said processing step comprises culling the desired portion from the content data and compiling a summary of the content data with the desired portion.

25. A method as recited in claim 24, wherein said compiling step is accomplished with an artificial intelligence algorithm.

26. A method as recited in claim 21, further comprising rendering the content data and wherein said processing step comprises rendering the desired portions in a manner different from other portions of the content data.

28. A method as recited in claim 27, wherein said downloading step comprises downloading a portion of the content data that will fit into available memory of a device receiving the content data.

29. A method as recited in claim 28, further comprising the step of determining the available memory in the device receiving the content data and wherein said manipulating step comprises placing flag elements in memory registers corresponding to memory addresses demarcating a portion of the content data that corresponds to the available memory of the device receiving the content data and wherein said downloading step comprises downloading a portion of the content data in memory addresses corresponding to the demarcated portion.

12. A method of marking portions of content data of a digital work stored in addressable memory comprising;

associating a flag element with the content data, the flag element having memory registers for saving demarcation flags, said registers corresponding to memory addresses of the addressable memory;

selecting a desired portion of said content to be marked; and

manipulating the flag element to place a flag in a memory register corresponding to a memory address of the desired portion of the content.

27. A method for distributing digital works comprising:

receiving a request for downloading digital content data;

associating a flag element with the content data, the flag element having memory registers for saving demarcation flags, said registers corresponding to memory addresses of the addressable memory;

downloading a portion of the content data; and

manipulating the flag element to place a flag in a memory register corresponding to a memory address indicating the downloaded portion of the content.