Distribution channels and monetizing

• US 8,117,094 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Issued: 02/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Multerer, Boyd Cannon, Flora, William T., O'Rourke, Bret P., Miller, John Mark, Wilfrid, Eric Peter, Keam, Nigel Stuart, Bathiche, Steven N., Roup, Oliver, Alkove, James Morris, Russell, Zachary Lewis, Whitten, Jon Marcus Randall, Wilson, Andrew David
• Primary Examiner(s): AN, IG TAI
• Application Number:
  US11/771,395
• Publication Number:
  US 20090006225A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,691 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/22, 705/26, 705/28, 705/14.4, 705/14.72
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0621 Item configuration or customization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A system to facilitate royalty tracking is provided. The system includes at least one tag to identify a portion of a creative work. A distribution component tracks the portion of the creative work and a crediting component reports usage of the creative work when the portion is detected in a larger body of work.

Claims

1. A system to facilitate royalty tracking, the system comprising:

a memory;

one or more micro components comprising one or more tags, stored in the memory, the one or more micro components providing tracing, tracking, and accounting capabilities for data, wherein at least one of the micro components enables dynamic advertising to provide incentive for participation in a promotion regarding the data;

one or more of the one or more tags stored in the memory to identify a portion of a first creative work, the portion representing a subset of portions comprising the first creative work; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing components stored in the memory that comprise;

a distribution component to track the portion of the first creative work;

a crediting component to report a usage of the portion, when the portion is detected in a second creative work;

one or more security components to ensure that the portion of the first creative work remains intact to the one or more tags to mitigate non-permitted access to tagged data of the portion of the first creative work, the one or more security components to prevent extraction of the portion from the first creative work without the tag;

authorized works data to indicate limits on uses of creative works;

an arbitration component to determine if limits on uses of the second creative work, indicated by the authorized works data, indicate all entities that are associated with tags within the second creative work;

a micro transaction component to initiate transactions if the arbitration component determines that limits on uses of the second creative work do not indicate all entities associated with tags within the second creative work, the transactions including licensing agreements or royalty payments; and

a derivative property component to create a derivative work by;

associating each of a plurality of intellectual properties with a tag;

combining the associated plurality of intellectual properties and their associated tags to form the derivative work;

associating the derivative work with a further tag; and

encrypting the plurality of intellectual properties using respective tags of the intellectual properties as keys in the encryption, such that removal of tags prevents decryption and presence of tags allows transactions by operation of the micro transaction component.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of intellectual properties are based on a plurality of different components, including a screen play, a musical score and an art design, and the derivative property component is a movie.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the contribution is associated with text, audio, video, image, schema, or electronic file data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the derivative property component associates tags from different authors to a collective work.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more security components ensure the tagged data functions as intended.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a micro point distribution component configured to perform acts comprising:

receive one or more portions of the first creative work;

analyze one or more tags associated with the one or more portions of the first creative work;

report the one or more tags to a credit reporting component; and

in response to reporting the one or more tags, enable access to the one or more portions of the first creative work for the one or more portions to be deployed in the second creative work.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the micro point distribution component is associated with a mobile device.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the micro point distribution component is associated with a settlement component to credit an account associated with the tag.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the micro transaction component is associated with a digital rights management (DRM) component.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an aggregator to facilitate creation of a collective creative work from two or more portions of one or more creative works.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising employing a third party system to form the collective creative work.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a licensing schema including a model for an arrangement of one or more tags and text to comprise a valid agreement to facilitate an exchange of one or more documents for micro licensing of one or more tags and for negotiation tracking, wherein the licensing schema is used for machine validation of the one or more documents such that when a document complies with each of one or more constraints of the model, the document is deemed valid.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the licensing schema is configured to incorporate information for facilitating the exchange of the one or more documents for micro licensing, the information comprising:

tag information, business identifiers, legal agreements, permissions, security preferences, third party interests, credit preferences, or financial components.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a portable data distribution component that is carried by an individual.

15. A system to facilitate royalty tracking, comprising:

a processor;

a memory, containing processor-executable statements, executable by the processor;

at least two tags, defined in the memory, to identify at least two portions of a creative work, respectively;

a distribution component, defined in the memory, to track the portions of the creative work;

a crediting component, defined in the memory, to report usage of the creative work when the portions are detected in a larger body of work;

authorized works data, defined in memory, to indicate limits on uses of creative works;

an arbitration component, defined in the memory, to determine if limits on uses of the creative work, indicated by the authorized works data, indicate that all entities are associated with a tag within the creative work;

a micro transaction component, defined in the memory, to initiate transactions if the arbitration component determines that limits on uses of the creative work do not indicate that all entities are associated with a tag within the creative work, the transactions including licensing agreements or royalty payments; and

a derivative property component to create a derivative work by;

associating each of a plurality of intellectual properties with a tag, the plurality of intellectual properties being based on a plurality of different components, including a screen play, a musical score and an art design;

combining the associated plurality of intellectual properties and their associated tags to form the derivative work, the derivative work being a movie;

associating the derivative work with a further tag; and

encrypting the plurality of intellectual properties using respective tags of the intellectual properties as keys in the encryption, such that removal of tags prevents decryption and presence of tags allows transactions by operation of the micro transaction component.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the tags provide a historical link to entities who have contributed intellectual property to an electronic file.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the derivative property component associates tags from different authors to a collective work.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising one or more security components to facilitate that data remains substantially intact to mitigate non-permitted access to tagged data.

19. A system to facilitate royalty tracking, comprising:

a processor;

a memory, containing processor-executable statements, executable by the processor;

one or more tags, defined in the memory, to identify one or more portions of a creative work, respectively, the one or more portions of the creative work being encrypted and the respective tags of the one or more portions of the creative work being keys to the encryption;

a distribution component, defined in the memory, to track the one or more portions of the creative work;

a crediting component, defined in the memory, to report usage of the creative work when the portions are detected in a larger body of work;

authorized works data, defined in memory, to indicate limits on uses of creative works;

an arbitration component, defined in the memory, to compare limits on uses, indicated by the authorized works data, to the one or more tags within the creative work, and to determine if all entities are associated with a tag within the creative work;

a micro transaction component, defined in the memory, to initiate transactions if the arbitration component determines that limits on uses of the creative work do not indicate that all entities are associated with a tag within the creative work, the transactions including licensing agreements or royalty payments.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a micro point distribution component, where the at least two tags are analyzed and credit reporting is performed.