US 8,151,331 B2Granted

Information providing system and design information providing server

AssigneePanasonic Corporation

InventorsMotoji Ohmori, Shunji Ohara, Takashi Katayama, Masayuki Kozuka

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Abstract

A design information providing system, which does not allow continuation of manufacturing of products unless a patent license contract is concluded, includes a terminal apparatus (40a) of a user manufacturing a product (BD player (50)) and includes a patent license issuing server (20a) issuing, to the terminal apparatus (40a), a contract certificate (60) certifying the conclusion of the contract, when a contract for a license necessary for manufacturing the BD player (50) is concluded with the user of the terminal apparatus (40a). Further, the design information providing system includes a design information providing server (an encryption key issuing server (30a)) transmitting an encryption key (80) to the terminal apparatus (40a) on condition of the confirmation of the contract certificate (60), when a request for design information (encryption key (80)) unique to the BD player (50) is transmitted from the terminal apparatus (40a).

A design information providing system comprising:

a terminal apparatus used by a user manufacturing a product;
a first design information providing server and a second design information providing server;
and
a patent license issuing server which concludes a license contract with said terminal apparatus regarding a patent necessary for manufacturing the product,
wherein said design information providing system connects said terminal apparatus, said first and second design information providing servers and said patent license issuing server, so as to allow mutual communication therebetween,
wherein said first design information providing server transmits, to said terminal apparatus, first design information indicating a specification necessary for manufacturing the product,
wherein said patent license issuing server includes:
a generating unit operable to generate a contractors list indicating a list of users of terminal apparatuses, each of the users indicated by the contractors list having concluded a license contract for a patent regarding the first design information;
and
an output unit operable to output the contractors list generated by said generating unit, and wherein said second design information providing server includes:
a communication unit operable to receive, from said terminal apparatus, a request for an issuance of an encryption key which is second design information that is (i) necessary for manufacturing the product and (ii) unique to the product;
an issuing unit operable to issue the encryption key to said terminal apparatus that has requested the issuance of the encryption key;
an obtaining unit operable to obtain the contractors list outputted by said output unit;
a database for storing the contractors list obtained by said obtaining unit;
and
a control unit operable to (i) browse the contractors list stored in said database and judge whether or not the contractors list includes a user of said terminal apparatus that has requested the issuance of the encryption key, when said communication unit receives the request for the issuance of the encryption key, and (ii) control said issuing unit to stop the issuance of the encryption key to said terminal apparatus, when said control unit judges that the contractors list does not include the user of said terminal apparatus that has requested the issuance of the encryption key.

13 more elements

Facts

Application

12/095,981Filed 28 Nov 2006

Priority

JP 2005-3540537 Dec 2005

Published

US 2009/0172790 A12 Jul 2009

Granted

3 Apr 2012

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

G06Q 10/10
Administration; Management: office automation; Time management
G06Q 50/04
Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g.…:…
H04L 9/0891
Key distribution or management, e.g. generation, sharing or updating, of cryptographic keys or passwords: revocation or update of secret…
H04L 9/3263
Including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity…:…

Abstract

Claims9