Licensed rights clearance and tracking for digital assets

• US 8,073,828 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2007
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ben Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Curbis Corporation
• Inventors: Bowden, Curtis W. M., Crandall, David M., Reeder, David Edward, Schupp, Jonathan Frederick, Shin, Sung H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Tim T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fan, Shiow-Jy
• Application Number:
  US11/763,347
• Publication Number:
  US 20080313226A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,636 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707/E17.005, 707/705, 707/999.107, 705/53, 705/59, 705/901
• US Class Current: 707/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/901 Digital rights management

Abstract

Rights clearances management for assets, such as media assets. A rights brokerage service enables potential licensees to clears rights to use assets within designated projects, such as advertising campaign projects. The potential licensee uses an interface to select or identify an asset without necessarily accessing the asset itself. The rights holders and the rights held by each rights holder are identified based on the asset identity. A request is automatically issued to the rights holders to approve use of the asset for the project. The potential licensee may use an interface to track progress of approvals from the rights holders. Unenforceable rights are detected and approval is automatically obtained. If all enforceable rights are cleared, the asset may be committed for approval by a project manager or other authority. When approved, a license to use the asset is automatically created between the potential licensee and each of the rights holders.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing a right in a media asset, comprising:

maintaining a database of statutory information that specifies conditions under which licenses are required to use the media asset in various governments'"'"' territorial jurisdictions;

receiving a media asset identifier as a result of an interaction with an electronic user interface to identify the media asset on behalf of a prospective licensee of the media asset;

identifying a rights holder identifier, based at least in part on the media asset identifier, wherein the rights holder identifier indicates a rights holder, who holds a right in the media asset that is not held by the prospective licensee;

determining the right held by the rights holder, based at least in part on the media asset identifier and the rights holder identifier;

determining, based on information from the database of statutory information, that an approval to use the media asset according to the right held by the rights holder is required in a particular government'"'"'s territorial jurisdiction;

automatically requesting the approval to use the media asset according to the right held by the rights holder, wherein the request includes an indication of a project for which the media asset is requested to be used, and wherein approval to use the media asset for the indicated project is requested from a party that is different than the rights holder;

providing an indication of whether the approval is granted, based on at least one response to the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the media asset identifier includes a media location identifier that specifies a media asset storage location that is accessible over an electronic network remotely from a rights management system that received the media asset identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the right held by the rights holder is one of a plurality of rights held by a plurality of rights holders for the media asset.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a status request; and

providing a status of whether the approval is granted.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising enabling a user to edit information associated with the right, wherein editing is initiated through a control in a user interface that provides the status of whether the approval is granted.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising providing a user interface to view of a history of edits to the information associated with the right.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the right is no longer enforceable; and

automatically approving use of the media asset according to the right that is no longer enforceable.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating the media asset identifier with a total clearance group of media assets for which all required rights have been approved for use in the project, if the response indicates that the request for approval is approved.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the response indicates that the request for approval is approved;

receiving an indication that the media asset is committed for final approval to be licensed for use, and

associating the media asset identifier with a final group of media assets for which all required rights have been approved for use in the project, and for which another level of approval is required to use the media asset for the project.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically establishing a license to use the media asset, if the response indicates that the request for approval is approved.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding the media asset identifier to a denied group, if the response indicates that the request for approval is not approved.

12. A non-transitory machine readable medium including instructions that cause a machine to perform the operations of claim 1.

13. A system for managing a right in a media asset, comprising:

a computer processor;

a database of statutory information that includes records that specify conditions under which licenses are required to use a media asset in various governments'"'"' territorial jurisdictions;

a rights analyzer, implemented by said processor, that performs a plurality of operations, including;

receiving a media asset identifier as a result of an interaction with an electronic user interface to identify the media asset on behalf of a prospective licensee of the media asset;

identifying a rights holder identifier based at least in part on the media asset identifier, wherein the rights holder identifier indicates a rights holder, who holds a right in the media asset that is not held by the prospective licensee;

determining the right held by the rights holder, based at least in part on the media asset identifier and the rights holder identifier;

determining, based on information from the database of statutory information, that an approval to use the media asset according to the right held by the rights holder is required in a particular government'"'"'s territorial jurisdiction; and

a rights clearance module, implemented by said processor, in communication with the rights analyzer, wherein the rights clearance module performs a plurality of operations, including;

automatically requesting the approval to use the media asset according to the right held by the rights holder, wherein the request includes an indication of a project for which the media asset is requested to be used, and wherein approval to use the media asset for the indicated project is requested from a party that is different than the rights holder; and

a rights tracking module, implemented by said processor, in communication with the rights clearance module, wherein the rights tracking module performs a plurality of operations, including providing an indication of whether the approval is granted, based on a response to the request.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the right held by the rights holder is one of a plurality of rights held by a plurality of rights holders for the media asset.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the rights analyzer further performs the operations of:

accessing a statutory information data store that includes information on the enforceability of rights;

determining that the right is no longer enforceable; and

indicating to the rights clearance module that use of the media asset should be allowed according to the right that is no longer enforceable.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the tracking module further performs the operations of:

receiving an indication that the response indicates that the request for approval is approved;

receiving an indication that the media asset is committed for final approval to be licensed for use; and

associating the media asset identifier with a final group of media assets for which all required rights have been approved for use in the project, and for which another level of approval is required to use the media asset for the project.

17. The system of claim 13, further comprising a licensing module, implemented by said processor, in communication with the tracking module, wherein the licensing module performs a plurality of operations, including automatically establishing a license to use the media asset, if the response indicates that the request for approval is approved.

18. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a licenses data store, storing a license for the media asset as a result of the response indicating that the request for approval is approved; and

a reporting module, implemented by said processor, in communication with the licenses data store and performing a plurality of operations, including producing a report that the license for the media asset.

19. A computer-implemented method for managing rights in a media asset, comprising:

maintaining a database of statutory information that specifies conditions under which licenses are required to use the media asset in various governments'"'"' territorial jurisdictions;

receiving a media asset identifier as a result of an interaction with an electronic user interface to identify the media asset on behalf of a prospective licensee of the media asset;

identifying a plurality of rights holders, based at least in part on the media asset identifier, wherein each of the plurality of rights holders holds a right in the media asset that is not held by the prospective licensee;

determining each right held by each of the plurality of rights holders, based at least in part on the media asset identifier;

determining for each of the plurality of rights holders, based on information from the database of statutory information, that an approval to use the media asset according to the right held by the respective rights holder is required in a particular government'"'"'s territorial jurisdiction;

automatically requesting the approval to use the media asset for a project indicated by the prospective licensee according to each right held by each of the plurality of rights holders, and wherein approval to use the media asset for the indicated project is requested from a party that is different than at least one of the plurality of rights holders; and

providing an indication of whether the approval is granted, based on at least one response to the request.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

identifying a right that is no longer enforceable; and

automatically approving use of the media asset according to the right that is no longer enforceable.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising automatically establishing a license to use the media asset between the prospective licensee and each of the plurality of rights holders.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the media asset comprises one of the following;

a media asset, a legal contract, a real estate asset, a distribution asset, and a service.