Merchandise-integral transaction receipt and auditable product ownership trail
First Claim
1. A method of registering ownership transfers, comprising steps of:
- receiving information describing an ownership transfer of an identified product;
assigning a unique identifier to represent the ownership transfer;
computing a cryptographic signature over the assigned unique identifier and at least a portion of the received information; and
registering the ownership transfer by storing the received information, the computed signature, and the assigned unique identifier in a repository.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques are disclosed for writing data directly onto a product to record each ownership transfer. As a result, the product itself now carries a traceable, auditable, non-forgeable, non-repudiable proof of ownership (and, optionally, ownership history) that can be used in a variety of ways. This recorded ownership transfer information provides an electronic receipt, which may be used by the present owner to prove his or her ownership. (Optionally, other types of transfers may be recorded in addition to, or instead of, ownership transfers.) A transfer agent or registrar creates a unique transaction identifier to represent the transfer, and preferably creates a cryptographic signature over fields representing the transfer. This information is then recorded in a repository that is external from the product.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method of registering ownership transfers, comprising steps of:
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receiving information describing an ownership transfer of an identified product;
assigning a unique identifier to represent the ownership transfer;
computing a cryptographic signature over the assigned unique identifier and at least a portion of the received information; and
registering the ownership transfer by storing the received information, the computed signature, and the assigned unique identifier in a repository. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of providing a product-integral transaction receipt, further comprising steps of:
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computing, for each transfer of the product, a cryptographic signature over fields describing the transfer;
permanently recording the cryptographic signature, along with at least a portion of the fields, on the product; and
recording the cryptographic signature and the fields in a separate repository.
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- 13. The method according to claim 13, when the permanently recording step uses a bar code representation.
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17. A system for establishing a secure electronic transaction receipt for a product, comprising:
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means for accessing a product-integral ownership record to determine a current owner of the product; and
means for securely revising the product-integral ownership record to reflect a new owner of the product, pursuant to a transfer of the product, only upon ensuring that a purported transferor in the transfer is the current owner. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A computer program product for providing an auditable trail of product transfers, the computer program product embodied on one or more computer-readable media and comprising:
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computer-readable program code means for computing, for each transfer of a particular product, a globally-unique identifier associated with the transfer;
computer-readable program code means for computing a cryptographic signature over one or more values describing the transfer;
computer-readable program code means for recording the cryptographic signature, the globally-unique identifier, and zero or more of the values in a product-integral ownership repository on the particular product;
computer-readable program code means for recording an audit record for the transfer in an audit repository, wherein the audit record comprises the cryptographic signature, the globally-unique identifier, and the values; and
computer-readable program code means for tracing transfers of the particular product using each of the audit records that pertains to the particular product. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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25. A method of providing a transfer agent service, comprising steps of:
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receiving, at a transfer agent, transfer information for a transfer of a product;
creating a globally-unique identifier to represent the transfer; and
registering the transfer by computing a digital signature over at least a portion of the received transfer information and the created globally-unique identifier and logging the computed digital signature and the portion of the received transfer information. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification