System and method for managing virtual property
First Claim
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1. A system for managing virtual property represented by an identification of virtual property items and associated data, comprising:
- a plurality of processes executing on one or more computer systems which exchange a digest, wherein the digest is a compressed representation of a plurality of virtual property items; and
wherein the digest is obtained by at least one of the plurality of processes by combining indices associated with each of the plurality of virtual property items into a pre-hash index and performing a hashing function on the index to obtain the digest.
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Abstract
A system and method for managing virtual property is disclosed. In the system, virtual items are each represented by one or more digital objects and are managed by one or more computer systems functioning as an owner, broker, authenticator and provider.
156 Citations
43 Claims
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1. A system for managing virtual property represented by an identification of virtual property items and associated data, comprising:
a plurality of processes executing on one or more computer systems which exchange a digest, wherein the digest is a compressed representation of a plurality of virtual property items; and
wherein the digest is obtained by at least one of the plurality of processes by combining indices associated with each of the plurality of virtual property items into a pre-hash index and performing a hashing function on the index to obtain the digest.- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A system for managing virtual property including one or more computer systems functioning as owner, authentication, and provider systems, the system comprising:
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a plurality of owners each having a collection of one or more virtual items, wherein each collection has an associated digest, the digest being a compressed representation of an owner'"'"'s collection;
an authenticator including a database of digests; and
a provider which is configured to conduct a transaction with the one of the pluraity of owners on the basis of a comparison between the digest of the authenticator database and the digest of the owner, wherein the owner provides its collection of one or more virtual items to the provider which calculates the associated digest. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system for managing virtual property items including one or more computer systems functioning as owner, authentication, and provider systems, the system comprising:
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an owner having a collection of one or more virtual property items and determining a digest according to the collection, wherein the digest is obtained by combining indices associated with each of the virtual property items into a pre-hash index and performing a hashing function on the index to obtain the digest;
an authenticator including a database storing the digests of said plurality of owners; and
a provider which is configured to sell one or more items to one of the plurality of owners and which determines a calculated digest from a transmitted collection of virtual items when the calculated digest matches a digest stored in the database associated with the one owner.
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15. A method for managing a collection of virtual property items belonging to an owner and having an index associated therewith, the method comprising the steps of:
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determining a digest by performing a hash function on the index, the index being formed by combining indices associated with each of the virtual property items;
sending the digest to a provider;
verifying the digest with an authenticator; and
conducting a transaction session between the provider and the owner. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method for conducting transactions over a distributed network, the method comprising steps of:
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a) authenticating an owner system to a provider system;
b) verifying the virtual property of the owner by performing steps of;
1) computing a digest of a collection of virtual property;
2) comparing the digest to a predetermined digest which tracks the collection, the predetermined digest being stored in a database of digests; and
c) permitting the owner to perform a transaction involving the collection, wherein the transaction is a game play transaction and the method includes the step of verifying that the owner actually owns virtual properly items of the collection. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
1) transmitting a session key encoded with a secret key from the provider to the owner; and
2) decrypting the transmitted session key with the secret key;
3) communicating information encrypted with the session key to the provider; and
4) inspecting the information to determine if the owner has encoded the information with a proper key.
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24. The method according to claim 22, the method further comprising a step of d) authenticating the provider to the owner.
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25. The method according to claim 24, the authenticating step d) further including steps of:
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1) encoding information with a secret key;
2) transmitting the encoded information to the provider;
3) decoding the encoded information with the secret key and transmitting the information to the owner; and
4) verifying that the provider decrypted the information with the proper key.
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26. The method according to claim 22, the computing step b1) including steps of:
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a) combining indices of virtual property items into a pre-hash index; and
b) performing a hashing function on the pre-hash index to obtain the digest.
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27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the performing step b) includes the step of performing an MD5 hashing function on the pre-hash index.
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28. A method for computing a digest from a collection of virtual property items, the method comprising steps of:
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combining indices associated with each of the virtual property items into a pre-hash index; and
performing a hashing function on the pre-hash index to obtain the digest.
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29. A method for computing a digest from a collection of virtual property items, the method comprising the steps of:
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storing virtual property items in a database; and
performing a hashing function on the database to obtain the digest.
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30. A digital information product comprising a computer-readable medium computer logic recorded thereon for enabling at least one processor of a computer system to manage a plurality of digital property items, the digital information product being adapted by the computer system to perform an act of:
creating a data structure representing a plurality of virtual property items having a plurality of indices, wherein the data structure is created from a pre-bash index, the pre-hash index being formed by the plurality of indices of virtual property, and wherein the data structure is formed by performing a hashing function on the pre-hash index. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A method for conducting transactions over a distributed network including one or more computer systems functioning as an owner, authenticator, and provider systems, the method comprising steps of:
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a) indicating, by a first owner, a second owner with whom to trade;
b) indicating a trade defining a first set of one or more virtual property items offering to trade and a second set of one or more items which are expected in return for the first set, c) after both the first and second owner indicate that they wish to trade, confirming that both the first and second owner wish to execute the trade;
d) transferring the virtual property items of the first set to the second owner;
e) transferring the virtual property items of the second set to the first owner; and
f) verifying that the first owner actually owns the first set of one or more virtual property items before conducting further transactions including the one or more virtual property items, wherein the step of verifying includes comparing a digest associated with the first set of one or more virtual property items with a predetermined digest, and refusing further transactions including the one or more virtual property items based on the result of the comparing step. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38)
verifying that the second owner actually owns the second set of one or more virtual property items before conducting further transactions including the one or more virtual property items.
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38. The method according to claim 36, wherein the virtual property items of the first and second set are software objects created in an object-oriented software language.
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39. A system for managing virtual property including one or more computer systems functioning as owner, authentication, and provider systems, the system comprising:
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a plurality of owners each having a collection of one or more virtual items, wherein each collection has an associated digest, the digest being a compressed representation of an owner'"'"'s collection;
an authenticator including a database of digests and configured to authenticate the owner system to another system; and
a provider which is configured to permit a transaction involving the collection with the one of the plurality of owners on the basis of a comparison between the digest of the authenticator database and the digest of the owner, wherein the provider is configured to transfer one or more virtual items to the owner and wherein the owner is operable to generate a request to trade one or more virtual items with another owner and the provider is configured to verify the owner'"'"'s collection by computing a digest of a collection of virtual property and comparing the digest to a predetermined digest which tracks the collection, the predetermined digest being stored in a database of digests, and wherein the owner provides its collection of one or more virtual items to the provider which calculates the associated digest. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43)
means for transferring the virtual property items of the first set to the second owner; and
means for transferring the virtual property items of the second set to the first owner.
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43. The method according to claim 42, wherein the system further comprises:
means for verifying that the first owner actually owns the first set of one. or more virtual property items before conducting further transactions including the one or more virtual property items.
Specification