Over-the-air delivery of metering certificates and data

• US 7,917,440 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2006
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Strom, Clifford P., Plette, Scott, McKelvey, Alex, Lau, Kevin
• Primary Examiner(s): Reagan; James A
• Application Number:
  US11/483,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20080021833A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,726 Days
• Field of Search: 705 50- 52, 705/67, 705/77, 705901-912, 380227-230
• US Class Current: 705/52
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1078 Logging; Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3678 e-cash details, e.g. blinded, divisible or detecting double spending
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/901 Digital rights management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/902 Licensing digital content
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/903 Adding plural layer of rights or limitations by other than the original producer
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/904 Usage protection of distributed files
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/905 Hardware usage protection
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/906 Requiring a supplemental attachment or input, e.g. Dongle, to open
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/907 Specific computer id, e.g. serial number, configuration
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/908 Software or content usage protection
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/909 Usage charge determination
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/91 including third party for collecting or distributing payment, e.g. Clearing house
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/911 Copy protection or prevention
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/912 having origin or program id

Abstract

Metering is enabled through an arrangement in which a metering certificate is communicated to a mobile device using an over-the-air protocol. A metering trigger provides the metering certificate that includes a location to which metering data is posted by the mobile device and a public key of a public-private key pair, or alternatively provides a link to such metering certificate. A metering helper passes the metering certificate to a DRM system on the mobile device which collects metering data associated with the metering ID and uses the public key to encrypt the metering data into a metering challenge. The metering helper posts the metering challenge to the location. The metering service extracts the metering data from the metering challenge using a private key and generates a metering response that is received by the metering helper which prompts the DRM system to reset at least a portion of a data store in which the metering data is stored.

Claims

1. A method for collecting metering data by a metering service from a client, the method comprising the steps of:

sending to the client a metering trigger, said metering trigger including at least one of the group consisting of a metering certificate that is embedded therein and a link to the metering certificate, and wherein the client is a mobile device and the metering certificate includes a public key of a public-private key pair;

receiving a metering challenge from the client, wherein the metering challenge includes metering data and is received directly at the metering service from the client using over-the-air communications;

using a private key of the public-private key pair, decrypting the metering data included in the metering challenge received from the client wherein the metering data is encrypted by the client using the public key; and

generating a metering response to prompt the client to reset at least a portion of a data store for the metering data contained in the metering challenge.

2. The method of claim 1 in which metering trigger is contained in a message using an over-the-air protocol selected from one of WAP Push or Direct Push.

3. The method of claim 2 in which the WAP Push comprises a WAP Push SL SMS or a WAP Push SI SMS.

4. The method of claim 2 in which the WAP Push includes an AppID having a unique value to thereby start a metering helper application residing on the client.

5. The method of claim 1 including the further step of providing the metering certificate to the client in a package having a set MIME type to thereby instruct a networking interface in the client to pass the metering certificate to a metering helper application running on the client.

6. The method of claim 1 including the further of step of providing the metering response to the client in a package having a set MIME type to thereby instruct a networking interface in the client to pass the metering response to a metering helper application running on the client.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the metering certificate further includes a metering ID, or a URL to which the metering data is reported.

8. A method for metering media content usage on a mobile device, the method comprising the steps of:

providing an SDK for implementing a metering helper application that is installable on the mobile device so as not to use a proxy device such as a PC to thereby enabling metering reporting directly from the mobile device to the metering service;

creating a metering certificate including a public key of a public-private key pair, a URL to which metering data is to be posted, and a metering ID associated with a metering service; and

providing the metering certificate to the metering service.

9. The method of claim 8 in which the metering helper application is arranged to pass the metering certificate received from the metering service to a DRM system which uses the public key from the metering certificate to generate a metering challenge that includes metering data for the metering ID.

10. The method of claim 9 where the metering challenge is posted to the URL by the metering helper application.

11. The method of claim 8 in which the metering service uses a private key of the public-private key pair to extract the metering data from the metering challenge.