Network publishing authorization protocol
First Claim
1. In a network connected to a plurality of printers associated with a plurality of users and to a publisher of network publications, a network publishing authorization protocol for authorizing the printing of a document at the printers, including the steps of:
- the publisher obtaining a document identity and page descriptions for the document to be printed from an identity server;
the publisher sending the document, including its identity and page descriptions to a page server responsible for that document identity;
the publisher creating a message that includes the publisher'"'"'s own identity, alias identities of the plurality of users, a set of multicast channel names, and a private electronic signature of the publisher;
the publisher addressing the document to the plurality of users; and
the publisher sending the document to the plurality of printers associated with the plurality of users.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A network publishing authorization protocol, for use in a network connected to a printer, a server and a publisher of network publications. The protocol authorizes the printing of a publication at the printer. It includes the steps of: addressing the publication to a user; signing the publication using a private key; sending the publication to the printer; and confirming that the publication may be printed at the printer, by verifying the private key signature. Confirmation may take place at the printer or at the server.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. In a network connected to a plurality of printers associated with a plurality of users and to a publisher of network publications, a network publishing authorization protocol for authorizing the printing of a document at the printers, including the steps of:
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the publisher obtaining a document identity and page descriptions for the document to be printed from an identity server;
the publisher sending the document, including its identity and page descriptions to a page server responsible for that document identity;
the publisher creating a message that includes the publisher'"'"'s own identity, alias identities of the plurality of users, a set of multicast channel names, and a private electronic signature of the publisher;
the publisher addressing the document to the plurality of users; and
the publisher sending the document to the plurality of printers associated with the plurality of users. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
registering a user with a printer by creating a record in a database of the identity server connected to the network.
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3. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 1, including the further step of:
subscribing a user to a publication of the publisher by creating a record in a database of the first server.
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4. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 3, where the identity server holds details of an alias identity of the user.
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5. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 4, where the identify server holds a subscription record for the purpose of subscribing a user to a publication, containing details of the publisher'"'"'s identity and the user'"'"'s alias identity.
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6. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 1, including the further step of:
verifying at a printer that the printer is registered for the user, by accessing the identify server.
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7. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 5, including the further steps of:
confirming that a publication may be printed at a printer by checking that the publisher is authorized to print the publication to the printer, by confirming the subscription.
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8. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 7, including the further step of:
verifying the publisher'"'"'s signature using a public signature key.
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9. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 7, including the fixer step of:
verifying that a printer is registered for a user.
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10. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 1, including the further steps of:
the page server using the publisher'"'"'s identity and user'"'"'s alias identity to obtain a corresponding user'"'"'s identity and a user'"'"'s printer'"'"'s identity from a registration server.
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11. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 10, including the further steps of:
the page server allocating document and page instance identities and forwarding the page descriptions, including page identities, to a printer;
also sending names of multicast channels for a printer to listen to; and
returning the newly allocated page identities to the publisher for future use.
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12. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 1, including the further steps of:
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sending at least some of the document to a registration server, confirming at the registration server that a document may be printed at a print; and
,in the event that the confirmation succeeds, sending the at least some of the document from the registration server to the printer.
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13. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 12, including the further steps of:
accomplishing the confirmation by confirming that the publisher is authorized to print the document to the printer, by accessing the identity server to confirm the subscription.
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14. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 13, including the further step of:
verifying the publisher'"'"'s signature at the registration server using a public key, obtained from the identity server.
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15. A network publishing authorization protocol according to claim 14, including the further step of:
verifying at the registration server that the printer is registered for the user, by accessing the identity server.
Specification