Digest of biographical information for an electronic device with static and dynamic portions

• US 9,324,016 B1
• Filed: 04/04/2013
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Cordes, Kevin R., Loman, Clinton H., Paczkowski, Lyle W., Steele, Kenneth R., Mantel, Brian D.
• Primary Examiner(s): King, Curtis
• Application Number:
  US13/857,141
• Time in Patent Office: 1,118 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0727 the arrangement being a circuit facilitating integration of the record carrier with a hand-held device such as a smart phone of PDA
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10297 arrangements for handling protocols designed for non-contact record carriers such as RFIDs NFCs, e.g. ISO/IEC 14443 and 18092 cryptographic protocols H04L9/00; network security protocols H04L63/00; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; network protocols for data switching network services H04L67/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/30 Administration of product recycling or disposal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/01 Customer relationship services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/77 for interrogation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/24 Transfer of terminal data
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 90/00 Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation

Abstract

A method of managing a lifecycle of a mobile communication device. The method comprises storing a biographical digest in a radio frequency identity chip of the mobile communication device at the time of manufacture of the communication device, wherein the biographical digest comprises information about the device and comprises a static portion and a dynamic portion. The method further comprises activating the device for wireless communication service; after activating the device, deactivating the device for wireless communication service; and after deactivating the device, writing a device status of the dynamic portion of the biographical digest in the radio frequency identity chip of the device to a value of dead, whereby the device is prevented from being activated for wireless communication service after once having the device status of the dynamic portion of the biographical digest in the radio frequency identity chip of the device written to the dead value.

Claims

1. A method of managing a lifecycle of a mobile communication device, comprising:

storing a biographical digest in a radio frequency identity (RFID) chip of a mobile communication device at the time of manufacture of the communication device, wherein the biographical digest comprises a static portion and a dynamic portion,

wherein the static portion is written to by a manufacturer of the device and comprises an identity of a model of the device, an identity of a manufacturer of the device, an identity of a location where the device was manufactured, and an identity of an initial software version of the device, and wherein the static portion is write disabled after being written to by the manufacturer of the device,

wherein the dynamic portion comprises an identity of a current software version of the device and an identity of a device status having a value of new, and wherein the dynamic portion is write enabled by the manufacturer of the device;

activating the device for wireless communication service;

after activating the device, deactivating the device for wireless communication service; and

responsive to deactivating the device, writing the device status into the dynamic portion of the biographical digest in the RFID chip of the device, wherein the device status corresponds to a value of dead, and wherein the device is prevented from being activated for wireless communication service after having the device status of the dynamic portion of the biographical digest in the RFID chip of the device be written to the value of dead.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, before writing the device status to dead to the dynamic portion, writing the device status of the dynamic portion of the biographical digest in the RFID chip of the device to a value of refurbished.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising altering the dynamic portion of the biographical digest to be unwriteable based on the device status being the value of dead.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the RFID chip is written to from an internal communication bus of the mobile communication device and is readable via near field communication (NFC) by a reader external to the mobile communication device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the RFID chip is readable via near field communication by the reader external to the mobile communication device when the mobile communication device is turned off and when the mobile communication device does not have a battery installed.

6. The method claim 1, wherein the mobile communication device is at least one of a mobile phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant, a media player, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, or a tablet computer.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

verifying that information is stored to the static portion of the biographical digest; and

responsive to the verification, blocking write access to the static portion of the biographical digest while permitting write access to the dynamic portion of the biographical digest.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein blocking write access to the static portion of the biographical digest while permitting write access to the dynamic portion includes blowing at least one fuse in a write line associated with the static portion while leaving intact a fuse in a corresponding write line associated with the dynamic portion.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

permanently disabling write access to the dynamic portion of the biographical digest based on the device status in the dynamic portion corresponding to the value of dead.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising preventing the mobile communication device from attempting to activate via radio communication based on the device status in the dynamic portion corresponding to the value of dead.

11. A method of managing a lifecycle of a mobile communication device based on a biographical digest, comprising:

combining a plurality of items of biographical device information into a biographical digest, wherein the items of biographical information comprise at least three items of information selected from a federal communications commission (FCC) identity, a model identity, a hardware version identity, a manufacturer identity, a country of manufacture, a date of manufacture, a location of manufacture, an initial software version identity, an initial preferred roaming list (PRL) version identity, a secure element (SE) key, a trusted security zone master key, an initial stock keeping unit (SKU) identity, an initial universal product code (UPC) identity, a current preferred roaming list identity, a current software version identity, a current stock keeping unit identity, a current universal product code identity, a device status, a device activation date, a phone number of the device, a current international mobile station equipment identity (IMEI) of the device, and a current mobile equipment identity (MEID) of the device;

writing the biographical digest to a radio frequency identity (RFID) chip of the mobile communication device, wherein part of the plurality of items is maintained in a static portion of the biographical digest in the RFID chip and the remaining plurality of items are maintained in a dynamic portion of the biographical digest in the RFID chip; and

reading the biographical digest from the RFID chip of the mobile device by a near field communication (NFC) scanner device, wherein the static portion is write disabled after being written to the RFID chip.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein combining the plurality of items into the biographical digest comprises inserting delimiters in the biographical digest between each of the plurality of items.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein a format of the biographical digest is standardized across a plurality of models of mobile communication devices.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein a format of the biographical digest is standardized across a plurality of wireless communication service providers.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the items of biographical information comprise the device status, and wherein the device status takes values of new, refurbished, or dead, wherein a mobile communication device once written to the dynamic portion with a dead value in the device status of the biographical digest stored in the RFID chip of the device is thereafter prevented from being activated for use on a wireless communication network.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising writing the updated biographical digest information to only the dynamic portion of the biographical digest in the RFID chip at a time after initial manufacturing of the mobile communication device and during a fulfillment processing of the mobile communication device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising writing another updated biographical digest information to only the dynamic portion of the biographical digest in the RFID chip at a time after fulfillment processing of the mobile communication device and during a customer visit to a facility operated by a wireless communication service provider.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

providing the biographical digest and an authentication key to the mobile communication device, wherein the authentication key is provided based on the dynamic portion of the biographical digest.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein writing the biographical digest to the RFID chip comprises writing the dynamic portion to a memory area of the RFID chip based on the authentication key.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the RFID chip comprises a bifurcated memory having memory areas corresponding to each of the static portion and the dynamic portion.