Patents by Inventor Brian Neill

Brian Neill has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7801869
    Abstract: A partial revocation list and a system and method for using the partial revocation list for tracking the authenticity of replacement cartridges in a manufactured device to inhibit cloning of the cartridges is provided. A revocation pool is maintained by a manufacturer who chooses a partial revocation list from the revocation pool to store in the memory of the cartridge. The device stores its own revocation list, informs the manufacturer of cartridges which have been used and checks when a new device is installed to ensure a cloned replacement is not being used. The partial revocation list distributes enough revocation information to devices to statistically impair the cartridge yield of a cloning operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2010
    Assignee: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Brian Neill, Ashok Vadekar
  • Publication number: 20100205433
    Abstract: A system and method for remote device registration, to monitor and meter the injection of keying or other confidential information onto a device, is provided. A producer who utilizes one or more separate manufacturers, operates a remote module that communicates over forward and backward channels with a local module at the manufacturer. Encrypted data transmissions are sent by producer to the manufacturer and are decrypted to obtain sensitive data used in the devices. As data transmissions are decrypted, credits from a credit pool are depleted and can be replenished by the producer through credit instructions. As distribution images are decrypted, usage records are created and eventually concatenated, and sent as usage reports back to the producer, to enable the producer to monitor and meter production at the manufacturer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2010
    Publication date: August 12, 2010
    Applicant: Certicom Corp.
    Inventors: Brian NEILL, Ashok VADEKAR, Patrick XU
  • Patent number: 7734915
    Abstract: A system and method for remote device registration, to monitor and meter the injection of keying or other confidential information onto a device, is provided. A producer who utilizes one or more separate manufacturers, operates a remote module that communicates over forward and backward channels with a local module at the manufacturer. Encrypted data transmissions are sent by producer to the manufacturer and are decrypted to obtain sensitive data used in the devices. As data transmissions are decrypted, credits from a credit pool are depleted and can be replenished by the producer through credit instructions. As distribution images are decrypted, usage records are created and eventually concatenated, and sent as usage reports back to the producer, to enable the producer to monitor and meter production at the manufacturer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2010
    Assignee: Certicom Corp
    Inventors: Brian Neill, Ashok Vadekar, Patrick Xu
  • Publication number: 20080164976
    Abstract: An authenticated RFID system is provided that uses elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) to reduce the signature size and read/write times when compared to traditional public key implementations such as RSA. Either ECDSA or ECPVS can be used to reduce the signature size and ECPVS can be used to hide a portion of the RFID tag that contains sensitive product identifying information. As a result, smaller tags can be used or multiple signatures can be written at different stages in a manufacturing or supply chain. A key management system is used to distribute the verification keys and aggregate signature schemes are also provided for adding multiple signatures to the RFID tags, for example in a supply chain.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2007
    Publication date: July 10, 2008
    Inventors: Michael Griffiths-Harvey, Brian Neill, Keelan Smith, Tony Rosati, Walt Davis
  • Publication number: 20080150702
    Abstract: An authenticated RFID system is provided that uses elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) to reduce the signature size and read/write times when compared to traditional public key implementations such as RSA. Either ECDSA or ECPVS can be used to reduce the signature size and ECPVS can be used to hide a portion of the RFID tag that contains sensitive product identifying information. As a result, smaller tags can be used or multiple signatures can be written at different stages in a manufacturing or supply chain. A key management system is used to distribute the verification keys and aggregate signature schemes are also provided for adding multiple signatures to the RFID tags, for example in a supply chain.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2007
    Publication date: June 26, 2008
    Inventors: Brian Neill, Anthony J. Walters, Randy Tsang
  • Publication number: 20080044026
    Abstract: A system and method for controlling a production process for producing a product is provided in which overproduction may be inhibited by introducing a separation of duties within a production process. Typically a producer will contract out the various stages of a production process to multiple contractors. In general, separation of duties involves purposefully separating production stages, for silicon chips or other products, so that the end product has been handled or “touched”, by each subcontractor, in order for the end product to be fully functional.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2007
    Publication date: February 21, 2008
    Inventors: Anthony Walters, Brian Neill, Tony Rosati, Ashok Vadekar, Daniel O'Loughlin
  • Publication number: 20080028235
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for authenticating and securing an embedded device using a secure boot procedure and a full non-volatile memory encryption process that implements Elliptic Curve Pinstov-Vanstone Signature (ECPV) scheme with message recovery on a personalized BIOS and master boot record. The signature includes code that is recovered in order to unlock a key that is in turn used to decrypt the non-volatile memory. The use of ECPVS provides an implicit verification that the hardware is bound to the BIOS since the encrypted memory is useless unless properly decrypted with the proper key.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2007
    Publication date: January 31, 2008
    Inventors: Keelan Smith, Scott Vanstone, Daniel Brown, Darryl Parisien, Ashok Vadekar, Brian Neill
  • Publication number: 20070156638
    Abstract: The present invention provides an inexpensive, software-based security-retrofit solution to verify the integrity of program code in embedded systems, or accessories, without resorting to expensive hardware changes. All unused memory on an accessory that could be used to store a program code image is filled with random data. A host system also locally stores a copy of the accessory's program image containing the random data. The host system sends the accessory a list of memory addresses or memory ranges on the accessory, which is always different and random in nature. The accessory will then produce a digest using values stored in the memory addresses as inputs to a secure hash function. The host system verifies the integrity of the embedded program code by verifying the resulting digest produced by and returned from the accessory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 5, 2006
    Publication date: July 5, 2007
    Inventors: Ashok Vadekar, Brian Neill
  • Publication number: 20070021843
    Abstract: A system and method for remote device registration, to monitor and meter the injection of keying or other confidential information onto a device, is provided. A producer who utilizes one or more separate manufacturers, operates a remote module that communicates over forward and backward channels with a local module at the manufacturer. Encrypted data transmissions are sent by producer to the manufacturer and are decrypted to obtain sensitive data used in the devices. As data transmissions are decrypted, credits from a credit pool are depleted and can be replenished by the producer through credit instructions. As distribution images are decrypted, usage records are created and eventually concatenated, and sent as usage reports back to the producer, to enable the producer to monitor and meter production at the manufacturer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 12, 2006
    Publication date: January 25, 2007
    Inventors: Brian Neill, Ashok Vadekar, Patrick Xu
  • Publication number: 20060161571
    Abstract: A partial revocation list and a system and method for using the partial revocation list for tracking the authenticity of replacement cartridges in a manufactured device to inhibit cloning of the cartridges is provided. A revocation pool is maintained by a manufacturer who chooses a partial revocation list from the revocation pool to store in the memory of the cartridge. The device stores its own revocation list, informs the manufacturer of cartridges which have been used and checks when a new device is installed to ensure a cloned replacement is not being used. The partial revocation list distributes enough revocation information to devices to statistically impair the cartridge yield of a cloning operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 16, 2005
    Publication date: July 20, 2006
    Inventors: Brian Neill, Ashok Vadekar