Patents by Inventor Brian P. Evans

Brian P. Evans 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: 9590952
    Abstract: Lossy data stream decoder techniques are described herein. In response to a request for decoded content from a consuming application, a decoder may validate headers and identify portions of the data that are considered pertinent to the request. The decoder then performs lossy extraction to form incomplete data that is provided to the consuming application in response to the request. The full data for the data stream is not exposed to the consuming application or other downstream components. In this way, the consuming application is provided data sufficient to perform requested graphics processing and resource management operations, while at the same time the risk of piracy is mitigated since the consuming application is unable to get a full version of the data in the clear and the data have been validated by the decoder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Yongjun Wu, Fedir Yuriyovych Kyslov, Shyam Sadhwani, Samuel John Wenker, Brian P. Evans, Hany Farag
  • Patent number: 9430619
    Abstract: Innovations in the area of hardware-protected digital rights management (“DRM”) systems are presented. For example, a hardware-protected DRM system includes a trusted layer and untrusted layer. In the untrusted layer, a control module receives source media data that includes encrypted media data. The control module processes metadata about the media data. The metadata, possibly exposed by a module in the trusted layer, is not opaque within the untrusted layer. In the trusted layer, using key data, a module decrypts encrypted media data, which can be the encrypted media data from the source media data or a transcripted version thereof. A module in the trusted layer decodes the decrypted media data. A host decoder in the untrusted layer uses the metadata to manage at least some aspects of the decoding, rendering and display in the trusted layer, without exposure of decrypted media data or key data within the untrusted layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Yongjun Wu, Shyam Sadhwani, Samuel J. Wenker, Brian P. Evans, Hany Farag, Lucia Darsa
  • Publication number: 20160070887
    Abstract: Innovations in the area of hardware-protected digital rights management (“DRM”) systems are presented. For example, a hardware-protected DRM system includes a trusted layer and untrusted layer. In the untrusted layer, a control module receives source media data that includes encrypted media data. The control module processes metadata about the media data. The metadata, possibly exposed by a module in the trusted layer, is not opaque within the untrusted layer. In the trusted layer, using key data, a module decrypts encrypted media data, which can be the encrypted media data from the source media data or a transcrypted version thereof. A module in the trusted layer decodes the decrypted media data. A host decoder in the untrusted layer uses the metadata to manage at least some aspects of the decoding, rendering and display in the trusted layer, without exposure of decrypted media data or key data within the untrusted layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2014
    Publication date: March 10, 2016
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yongjun Wu, Shyam Sadhwani, Samuel J. Wenker, Brian P. Evans, Hany Farag, Lucia Darsa
  • Publication number: 20160072773
    Abstract: Lossy data stream decoder techniques are described herein. In response to a request for decoded content from a consuming application, a decoder may validate headers and identify portions of the data that are considered pertinent to the request. The decoder then performs lossy extraction to form incomplete data that is provided to the consuming application in response to the request. The full data for the data stream is not exposed to the consuming application or other downstream components. In this way, the consuming application is provided data sufficient to perform requested graphics processing and resource management operations, while at the same time the risk of piracy is mitigated since the consuming application is unable to get a full version of the data in the clear and the data have been validated by the decoder.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 5, 2014
    Publication date: March 10, 2016
    Inventors: Yongjun Wu, Fedir Yuriyovych Kyslov, Shyam Sadhwani, Samuel John Wenker, Brian P. Evans, Hany Farag
  • Patent number: 8738536
    Abstract: A computing device has encrypted content and a corresponding license having a decryption key for decrypting the content. The license allows the computing device to render the content thereon. The computing device may issue a sub-license based on the license to a portable device. The sub-license allows the portable device to render the content thereon and has the decryption key. The portable device has a digital device certificate including information thereon. The computing device receives from the portable device the device certificate thereof, and determines based on rules in the license and the information on the portable device in the device certificate whether the computing device can issue the sub-license to the portable device. If so, the computing device constructs such sub-license to include the decryption key (KD) and transmits the constructed sub-license to the portable device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Clifford P. Strom, Michael Y. Siu, Brian P. Evans
  • Patent number: 8725646
    Abstract: A system of controlling playback of digital media. A system of controlling playback of digital media comprising a CE device having an output path and a license having a specified output protection level disposed upon the CE device in which the specified output protection level controls playback of the digital media over the output path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: James M. Alkove, Clifford P. Strom, Benjamin B. Cutter, Jr., Brian P. Evans
  • Patent number: 8438645
    Abstract: A system of controlling playback of digital media. A system of controlling playback of digital media comprising a CE device having a secure clock and a license having a specified grace period disposed upon the CE device in which a digital media file governed by the license may be played for the grace period upon failure of the secure clock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Amit Jain, Brian P. Evans, Clifford P. Strom, Benjamin B. Cutter, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8438114
    Abstract: A digital license includes an identification of a removal service that can authorize removing such license. A client selects the license to be removed and the service, constructs a challenge including therein a challenge license identification block (LIB) identifying the license to be removed, and sends the challenge to the service. The service receives the challenge, stores at least a portion of the challenge in a database, constructs a response corresponding to the challenge and including therein a response LIB identifying the license to be removed and an identification of the service, and sends the response to the client. The client receives the response, employs the response LIB from the response to identify the license to be removed, and removes the identified license upon confirming that the identification of the service in the identified license matches the identification of the service in the response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Benjamin Brooks Cutter, Brian P. Evans, Clifford P. Strom, Vikas Khandelwal
  • Patent number: 8290874
    Abstract: A computing device segregates licenses for corresponding content according to relatively short lived licenses for relatively short lived content and relatively long lived licenses for relatively long lived content. The computing device stores the relatively short lived licenses in a more temporary and volatile license store, and the relatively long lived licenses in a more permanent and non-volatile license store. Thus, the relatively short lived licenses are deleted when the temporary license store is turned off and do not create disorder in the permanent license store.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Brian P. Evans, Clifford P. Strom, Daniel Rosenstein
  • Publication number: 20120036562
    Abstract: A digital license includes an identification of a removal service that can authorize removing such license. A client selects the license to be removed and the service, constructs a challenge including therein a challenge license identification block (LIB) identifying the license to be removed, and sends the challenge to the service. The service receives the challenge, stores at least a portion of the challenge in a database, constructs a response corresponding to the challenge and including therein a response LIB identifying the license to be removed and an identification of the service, and sends the response to the client. The client receives the response, employs the response LIB from the response to identify the license to be removed, and removes the identified license upon confirming that the identification of the service in the identified license matches the identification of the service in the response.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2011
    Publication date: February 9, 2012
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Benjamin Brooks Cutter, Brian P. Evans, Clifford P. Strom, Vikas Khandelwal
  • Patent number: 8060923
    Abstract: A digital license includes an identification of a removal service that can authorize removing such license. A client selects the license to be removed and the service, constructs a challenge including therein a challenge license identification block (LIB) identifying the license to be removed, and sends the challenge to the service. The service receives the challenge, stores at least a portion of the challenge in a database, constructs a response corresponding to the challenge and including therein a response LIB identifying the license to be removed and an identification of the service, and sends the response to the client. The client receives the response, employs the response LIB from the response to identify the license to be removed, and removes the identified license upon confirming that the identification of the service in the identified license matches the identification of the service in the response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Benjamin Brooks Cutter, Brian P. Evans, Clifford P. Strom, Vikas Khandelwal
  • Patent number: 7856404
    Abstract: A method is provided for a computing device to copy (burn) a playlist of tracks to a portable medium, where each track corresponds to a piece of digital content. At least one of the pieces of content is rights-management (RM) protected and accordingly is burned to the portable medium only in accordance with a corresponding digital license.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Brian P. Evans, Clifford P. Strom, Geoffrey Dunbar, Richard D. Prologo
  • Patent number: 7693280
    Abstract: A sequence of content keys are shared between a receiver of pieces of digital content and a computing device upon which the content is to be rendered. The receiver encrypts each piece of content according to a corresponding content key in the sequence and forwards the encrypted content to the computing device and the computing device decrypts the encrypted content according to the corresponding content key. The receiver initially transmits to the computing device an initialization digital license with an initial content key (CK0) therein. Each of the receiver and the computing device derive a new content key (CKx) in the sequence from the initial content key (CK(0)) in the sequence on an as-needed basis and in a coordinated fashion. The initialization license is required only once for the sequence of content keys, and the receiver need not explicitly communicate (CKx) to the computing device for each piece of content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Brian P. Evans, Clifford P. Strom, Daniel Rosenstein, Anand D. Paka, Nicholas J. Fang, Eduardo Oliveria
  • Patent number: 7620809
    Abstract: A method of registering network devices in a digital rights management system (DRMS) includes receiving a digital certificate transmitted by the network device requesting registration and verifying the validity of the certificate. The DRMS may then send cryptographic information to the applying network device. The network device may be authorized for registration via a user interface to the DRMS. The DRMS may conduct a proximity test to determine of the network device is proximate to the DRMS. If the certificate is validated, authorization is received, and the proximity test indicates that the network device is proximate to the DRMS, the network device may be registered. A registered network device is then authorized to play protected digital content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2009
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Richard D. Prologo, Eduardo P. Oliveira, Clifford P. Strom, Brian P. Evans, Benjamin Brooks Cutter, Anand D. Paka
  • Patent number: 7568096
    Abstract: A request to render encrypted content is received and a chain of licenses corresponding to the content is located. The chain includes a leaf license linked to the content at one end of the chain, a root license at the other end of the chain, and any intermediate licenses therebetween. The leaf license and any intermediate licenses in the chain are each bound to the adjoining license in the chain toward the root license, and the root license is bound to an owner of a private key (PR-U). For each license in the chain, the license is verified and it is confirmed that the license allows the content to be rendered. A decryption key is obtained from the leaf license based on application of (PR-U) to the root license, the obtained key is applied to decrypt the encrypted content, and the decrypted content is rendered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2009
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Brian P. Evans, Clifford P. Strom, Michael Jay Parks
  • Patent number: 7558463
    Abstract: Described herein are one or more implementations for transforming (e.g., transcoding) DRM-protected digital media content while retaining associated DRM-information (e.g., a user license its related information).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2009
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Amit Jain, Benjamin Brooks Cutter, Brian P. Evans, Clifford P. Strom
  • Patent number: 7376976
    Abstract: Technology for protecting a digital content including a first content protection system capable of decrypting the digital content, the digital content including an inclusion list; a linkable library providing access for an application to the functionality of the first content protection system, the application including a second content protection system; and a means for evaluating the second content protection system to determine if the second content protection system is on the inclusion list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Scott J. Fierstein, Brian P. Evans, Geoffrey T. Dunbar, James M. Alkove, Daniel Rosenstein, Matthew Howard, Ming Ma, Alexandre Vicktorovich Grigorovitch
  • Patent number: 7266569
    Abstract: Metered data is accumulated and is indexed within a metering database of a client according to a metering ID (MID) and a content-associated ID (KID). The client selects a particular MID and metered data in the metering database having the selected MID, and constructs a challenge based on the selected metered data and sends same to a metering service. The metering service obtains the metered data from the challenge, stores same, and constructs a response. The client receives the response including a list of KIDs of the selected metered data in the challenge, and processes the list of KIDs by, for each KID in the list, deleting the metered data from the metering database having the selected MID and the KID.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Benjamin Brooks Cutter, Brian P. Evans, Clifford P. Strom, Michael Jay Parks
  • Patent number: 7139292
    Abstract: An apparatus comprising a distributed multiplexer configured to receive a distributed input group of signals. The distributed multiplexer may be configured to evenly load the distributed input groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2006
    Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
    Inventors: Brian P. Evans, Jeffery Scott Hunt
  • Patent number: 6904436
    Abstract: A method and system for automatically building a bit order data structure of configuration bits for a programmable logic device. One embodiment of the present invention first identifies a plurality of memory cells in a hierarchical schematic representation of the programmable device. Next, this embodiment determines a plurality of addresses corresponding to the plurality of memory cells. This embodiment next determines a plurality of logical names for the plurality of memory cells. Then, based on an order in which the plurality of addresses are to be loaded into the programmable logic device, this embodiment orders the plurality of logical names for the plurality of memory cells. Another embodiment first accesses a database comprising a plurality of logical names corresponding to a plurality of addresses. Then, this embodiment accesses a database specifying an order in which the plurality of addresses are to be loaded into the programmable logic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2005
    Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventors: James Daniel Merchant, Gordon Carskadon, Brian P. Evans, Jeffery Scott Hunt, Anup Nayak, Andrew Wright