US 7,624,284 B2 · Secure print control and rights management system

Abstract

A system and method for enforcing a usage control for a document, including: receiving an encrypted message, the encrypted message including a first key and a usage information authorization for the document, the encrypted message responsive to a second key to extract the first key and the usage information authorization; accepting an encrypted device datastream and securely decrypting the encrypted device datastream using the first key by a device, the device manager: generating a decrypted device datastream derived from the encrypted device datastream, transmitting the decrypted device datastream to the device without writing the decrypted device datastream to a user-accessible memory; and using the second key to access a datastore and to update a usage record for the document with the usage information authorization and a device status signal, the serializer providing the device manager with the print authorization signal when a device request is consistent with the usage record.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A system for printing a document, the system comprising:

a print manager configured to receive an encrypted document for printing;
a mail monitor configured to receive an email authorization message including a decryption key for the encrypted document and document usage information for the encrypted document and tag the email authorization message to prevent a subsequent copy of the authorization message from being processed;
the print manager responsive to receiving a first request for printing the encrypted document further configured to:
process the email to retrieve the document usage information;
determine from the document usage information if the first request for printing the encrypted document is authorized;
if the first request for printing the encrypted document is authorized, then the print manager further configured to:
process the email to retrieve the decryption key for the encrypted document;
decrypt the encrypted document using the decryption key to generate an unencrypted document without writing a decrypted datastream to user-accessible memory;
and
transmit the unencrypted document to a printer for printing.

7 more elements

A method for printing a document the method comprising:

receiving an encrypted document for printing;
receiving an email authorization message including a decryption key for the encrypted document and document usage information for the encrypted document;
tagging the email authorization message to prevent a subsequent copy of the authorization message from being processed;
receiving a first request for printing a first number of copies of the encrypted document;
processing the email to retrieve the number of copies authorized from the document usage information;
determining if the first request for the first number of copies is authorized based on the document usage information;
processing the email to retrieve the decryption key for the encrypted document responsive to the first request being authorized;
decrypting the encrypted document using the decryption key to generate an unencrypted document without writing a decrypted datastream to user-accessible memory;
transmitting the unencrypted document to a printer for printing the first number of copies;
updating the document usage information responsive to the first number of copies of the document printed;
and
storing the document usage information on a secure datastore.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Secure print control and rights management system

Life of this patent

Secure print control and rights management system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims14