Patent ID: 7797244
Filing Date: 2010-09-14
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method of managing property rights of content through inclusion and enforcement of Transaction Code Identifiers (TCI's) and their licensing conditions over a network including a combination of at least three components from the group consisting of: internet providers, network providers, connectivity providers, digital content providers, servers, routers, and end user devices, as the content is distributed to a user, said method comprising: A) placing a TCI in a header portion of a digital content file on an end user device of the network; B) watermarking the machine readable data within the TCI; C) the owner of the content sending the machine readable data to a server for storage and later retrieval; D) sending the digital content file containing the TCI from the owner to a first component of the network; E) verifying, by the first component of the network, that the data in the property specific section of the TCI in the distributed digital content file has not been altered; F) checking the server for payment information indicating that a user to which the digital content file is being distributed to has paid the indicated price to the account contained in the property specific section of the TCI; G) requiring payment information, indicating the user's payment of the price to the account contained in the property specific section of the TCI, to be present on the server before the component will send the digital content file to a second component of the network; H) sending the digital content file to the second component of the network; I) if the second component is not a user device associated with the user: J) repeating step I) for each subsequent component until the digital content file is stored on the user device associated with the user.