Automated Digital Express Gateway For Licensing And Acquiring Rights & Permissions For 3rd Party Copyrighted Content

• US 20110184871A1
• Filed: 01/21/2011
• Published: 07/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Richard Stahl
• Original Assignee: Richard Stahl
• Inventors: Stahl, Richard
• Granted Patent: US 8,438,113 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management

Abstract

The invention provides an end-to-end automated streaming workflow process which enables real-time or batch processing to grant licenses and to acquire licenses for 3^rd party copyrighted content. Using a computer, the invention automates the permissions transaction process of procuring and processing licenses real-time or by batch, reducing lead-times from many weeks or months to hours, automatically transforming and translating requests and responses for global e-commerce among multi-vendor systems and non-standard rights semantics and languages, eliminating or reducing manual labor effort, negotiating licensing fees to conform with specifications, protecting rights-holders'"'"' intellectual property rights and assuring rights-holders they are fairly compensated and paid for their work, identifying “public domain” and/or “fair use” works, saving companies time and money, while providing a competitive advantage for publishers and the enterprise.

Claims

1. A method of using a first computer that performs transaction steps which communicates over the internet or secure electronic network to a second computer comprising:

processing real time or batch requests among participants using disparate rights management systems and platforms, which include a content user “

CU”

or a rights requestor “

RR”

, a content provider “

CP”

or a rights holder “

RH”

or a rights depository/reproduction rights organization “

RRO”

;

connecting participants to an electronic “

Gateway”

for automated communications among participants via the internet or electronic network;

transforming each participant'"'"'s rights semantics and expressions to and from a common rights definition language “

RDL”

;

matching transformed responses from content providers “

CP” and

reproduction rights organizations “

RRO”

against the transformed specifications from the content user “

CU”

;

modifying/negotiating with “

CP” and

“

RRO”

for a conforming response;

processing acceptable conforming responses for 3^rd party licenses of copyrighted content; and

accessing online to the gateway to input transactions;

wherein at least one of the computers transforms the requested article into a usage right and generates a license via the gateway which grants rights and permissions for copyrighted content.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the participants are authenticated.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein processing is switched from automated to manual processing when the transactions are non-compliant.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the request is re-submitted when the prior response is non-conforming.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the license generated is a paper license.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the license generated is a digital license.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein usage rights and terms of acceptable conforming responses are posted to a Usage Rights Repository.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein acceptable conforming responses are processed for payment.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein a transaction is rejected when a participant is not identified or authenticated, the material sought is not available, the requested material is not available from the owner, or the rights requested to re-use the material is not available from the owner.

10. The method of claim 4 wherein the electronic gateway has a computer system for machine-to-machine communications for enabling secure electronic transactions processing among disparate computer systems and platforms.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the electronic gateway rejects a transaction and reverts to manual methods when a request cannot be authenticated, the content provider or content user cannot be found, or the rights semantics are ambiguous or cannot be transformed.

12. A system of using a first computer that performs transaction steps which communicates over the internet or an electronic network to a second computer comprising:

a processor for processing real time or batch requests among participants using disparate rights management systems and platforms, which include a content user “

CU”

or a rights requestor “

RR”

, a content provider “

CP”

or a rights holder “

RH”

or a rights depository/reproduction rights organization “

RRO”

;

a gateway connecting participants for automated communications via the internet or an electronic network;

transforming means for transforming each participant'"'"'s rights semantics and expressions to and from a common rights definition language “

RDL”

;

matching means for matching transformed responses from content providers “

CP” and

reproduction rights organizations “

RRO”

against the transformed specifications from the content user “

CU”

;

providing modifying/negotiating means with “

CP” and

“

RRO”

for a conforming response;

providing processing means for acceptable conforming responses for 3^rd party licenses of copyrighted content; and

means for accessing online to the gateway to input transactions;

wherein at least one of the computers generates a license via the gateway which grants rights and permissions for copyrighted content.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the participants are authenticated.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein processing is switched from automated to manual processing when the transactions are non-compliant.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the request is re-submitted when the prior response is non-conforming.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the license generated is a paper license.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the license generated is a digital license.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein usage rights and terms of acceptable conforming responses are posted to a Usage Rights Repository.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein acceptable conforming responses are processed for payment.