Providing notice of patent and other legal rights

• US 8,661,528 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2012
• Issued: 02/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: S Aqua Semiconductor LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Lot 27 Acquisition Foundation LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Ogilvie, John W.
• Primary Examiner(s): CHEN, SHIN HON
• Application Number:
  US13/523,569
• Publication Number:
  US 20120260332A1
• Time in Patent Office: 621 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 726/17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A system for providing notice of legal rights corresponding to a computing device includes presenting a notice to the user through an I/O interface. The notice is in response to an attempt by a user to access at least one feature of the device through the I/O interface of the device and the notice further indicates that the device is subject to legal rights under a legal instrument. An acknowledgement of the legal rights is presented through the I/O interface. If the user selects the acknowledgement, the user is allowed to access at least one feature of the device. The user is prevented from accessing the at least one feature of the device if the user does not select the acknowledgement.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining a device is an illegal copy of the device including identifying at least one characteristic of the device;

presenting, via an interface of the illegal copy of the device, a notice indicating that the illegal copy of the device is subject to one or more legal rights based on at least one patent, the presenting being in response to an attempt to access at least one function of the illegal copy of the device; and

granting access to the at least one function of the illegal copy of the device based, at least, on receiving an indication of an acknowledgement of knowledge of the one or more legal rights.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the acknowledgment of knowledge includes an acknowledgment that the at least one patent has been reviewed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the acknowledgment of knowledge includes an acknowledgment that the at least one patent covers the at least one function.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining, based on the access, a store of data comprising at least one of a name, an address, a customer number, an account number, an email address, an internet protocol address or a domain name.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the maintaining comprises at least one of:

storing one or more portions of the data in a first file that is local to the device or transmitting the one or more portions of the data over a network and storing the one or more portions of the data in a second file that is remote from the device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the maintaining comprises providing, to a subscriber device, authorized access to the store.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

searching a patent database; and

retrieving information associated with the at least one patent from the patent database.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

displaying the information associated with the at least one patent, wherein the information comprises at least one of text or an image associated with the at least one patent.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting the notice comprises presenting a patent infringement warning.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting the notice comprises presenting license information including contact information to determine whether a license has been granted for the access.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting the notice comprises presenting patent rights holder contact information.

12. A computing device, comprising:

a comparison module configured to determine a device is an illegal copy of the device as a function of at least one characteristic of the device;

a presenting module configured to, in response to an attempt to access one or more functions of the illegal copy of the device, display a notice, via an interface of the illegal copy of the device, the notice including an indication that the illegal copy of the device is subject to one or more legal rights based on one or more patents; and

an access module configured to, based, at least, on receipt of an indication of acknowledgment of the one or more legal rights, grant access to the one or more functions.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the indication of the acknowledgment comprises an indication that the at least one patent has been reviewed.

14. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the indication of the acknowledgment comprises an indication that the at least one patent covers the at least one function.

15. The computing device of claim 12, further comprising a data log module configured to maintain, based on the access, a log of data comprising at least one of a name, an address, a customer number, an account number, an email address, an internet protocol address or a domain name.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the data log module is further configured to at least one of:

store one or more portions of the data in a log file that is local to the device;

send the one or more portions of the data over a network and store the one or more portions of the data in a log file that is located on a remote server;

or

send, via a web bug, the one or more portions of the data over the network and store the one or more portions of the data in the log file that is located on the remote server.

17. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the data log module is further configured to provide, to a subscribing device, authorized access to the log of data.

18. The computing device of claim 12, further comprising a database search module configured to:

search a database of patents to obtain a search result; and

present, based on the search result, information associated with at least one patent of the one or more patents.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a computing system to perform operations, comprising:

determining a device is an illegal copy of the device including identifying at least one characteristic of the device;

presenting, via an interface of the illegal copy of the device, a notice indicating that the illegal copy of the device is subject to one or more legal rights based on at least one patent, the presenting being in response to an attempt to access at least one function of the illegal copy of the device; and

granting access to the at least one function of the illegal copy of the device based, at least, on receiving an indication of an acknowledgement of knowledge of the one or more legal rights.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising transmitting, via electronic mail, a copy of the at least one patent to an electronic mail address associated with the attempt to access the at least one function of the device.

21. A computing system, comprising:

a memory storing computer-executable instructions; and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the computer-executable instructions to at least;

determine a device is an illegal copy of the device as a function of at least one characteristic of the device;

identify an attempted access of one or more functions of the illegal copy of the device;

display, via a display interface of the illegal copy of the device, a notice having an indication that the illegal copy of the device is subject to one or more patents; and

grant the access in response to reception of the acknowledgment.

22. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to:

perform a comparison of at least one of an allowed identity, an allowed location, a disallowed identity, or a disallowed location, to at least one of an identity associated with the access, or a location associated with the access, and

limit subsequent access to the one or more functions based on the comparison.

23. A system, comprising:

means for determining a device is an illegally made copy of the device including means for identifying at least one characteristic of the device;

means for displaying a notice having a description that the illegally made copy of the device is subject to one or more legal rights based on one or more patents including means for displaying an acknowledgment of the one or more legal rights;

means for granting access to the function in response to receipt of an indication of an acknowledgement of knowledge of the one or more legal rights.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising means for determining a geographic location from which the attempt to access originated.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising:

means for initiating a sending of a copy of the at least one patent to an address associated with the geographic location from which the attempt to access originated.