Patent ID: 8612751

Claim:
A method for transferring entitled data securely via a public network, the method comprising: registering each of a plurality of devices in a customer network with a vendor network to confirm that each of the plurality of devices is entitled to transfer data to a server in the vendor network, wherein registering a first one of the plurality of devices comprises: associating the first one of the plurality of devices with a customer profile registered with the vendor; and associating the first one of the plurality of devices with a valid contract or warranty in the customer profile that covers the first one of the plurality of devices; registering a transport gateway in the customer network with the vendor network, wherein the transport gateway is configured to connect a collection module to the server in the vendor network; obtaining data from the collection module communicatively coupled to the plurality of devices, wherein the plurality of devices provide the collection module with data in a plurality of different formats; transforming the data obtained from the collection module into a format recognized by the server, wherein transformation is performed depending on the different formats of the data obtained from the collection module; assorting the transformed data by associating the transformed data with each of the plurality of devices; encrypting the assorted data; and sending the encrypted data, along with entitlement attributes of each of the plurality of devices, to the server securely via the public network through a single channel.