Method and apparatus to secure proprietary operation of computer equipment

Apparatus including:

• computer equipment;
• program material including a plurality of instructions and being removably connectable to said computer equipment;
• said computer equipment when connected to said program material operating to produce signals in accordance with said instructions;
• a display device responsive to said signals and producing a display thereof;
• said instructions containing a code causing said computer equipment to produce signals which if received by said display device would produce a particular display;
• and
• said computer equipment including means preventing said equipment from operating with program material not containing said code.

A method for operating electronic apparatus comprising:

• operating a digital computer to produce a sequence of two or more output signal states which are at least partially determined by stored program instructions which are received from a source which is physically separable from the digital computer;
• producing a humanly recognizable audio message and/or visual display in response to one or more distinct output states of the computer which are at least partially determined by program material received from the separable source;
• and
• detecting congruence between said program instructions received from the separable source and reference information which is stored in the digital computer and inhibiting the computer from producing at least one output signal state in the absence of said congruence.

Programming means for use with apparatus including computer equipment and a display device;

• said programming means including a plurality of instructions, part of which is a code;
• said programming means being removably connectable to said computer equipment;
• said computer equipment when connected to receive said instructions operating to produce signals in accordance therewith;
• said display device being responsive to said signals and producing displays;
• said code causing said computer equipment to produce signals which if received by said display device would cause it to produce a particular display;
• and said computer equipment including means preventing said equipment from operating with programming means not containing said code.