Patent ID: 8037036

Claim:
A method for determining a set of policy attributes to be applied to a digital asset, the method comprising: (a) receiving, at a client, a first asset identification tag corresponding to a digital asset and comprising one or more policies associated with the digital asset; (b) associating, by the client, a second asset identification tag with the digital asset; (c) identifying, by the client a predetermined flag in the first asset identification tag; and (d) deactivating, by the client responsive to the identified predetermined flag in the first asset identification tag and the association of the second asset identification tag, the one or more policies associated with the first asset identification tag; wherein the first asset identification tag corresponding to the digital asset is associated with the digital asset by default upon creation of the digital asset; wherein associating the second asset identification tag with the digital asset includes storing the second asset identification tag while concurrently maintaining storage of the first asset identification tag in a non-volatile manner to keep both the first and second asset identification tags associated with the digital asset; wherein the predetermined flag is an “Active when single” flag which directs the client to apply the one or more policies of the first asset identification tag only when there are no other asset identification tags associated with the digital asset; and wherein deactivating the one or more policies of the first asset identification tag includes immediately ignoring a particular policy of the first asset identification tag in response to (i) identification of the “Active when single” flag and (ii) association of the second asset identification tag with the digital asset.