Patents by Inventor Isaac P. Ahdout

Isaac P. Ahdout 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: 9224168
    Abstract: A computer adapted for pay-as-you go or other metered use has a policy for determined what measurements to take to detect fraud as well as steps to take when fraud is found. To optimize between good performance and sufficient tests to reduce the risk of fraud, a policy is developed based on observation of the users behavior, using data taken at the computer, data from a payment processor or both. After analysis, an updated policy is securely loaded at the computer to determine what, and how often to measure for suspected fraud.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Gokul P. Thirumalai, Isaac P. Ahdout
  • Patent number: 8214296
    Abstract: An electronic device, such as, a computer, may be adapted for self-monitoring for compliance to an operating policy. The operating policy may specify a pay-per-use or subscription business model and measurements associated with compliant usage. A secure execution environment may measure usage in accordance with the business model as well as monitor and enforce compliance to the operating policy. To increase the difficulty of attacking or otherwise disabling the secure execution environment, elements of the secure execution environment may be distributed. The distribution points may include other functional elements of the computer, such as interface circuits, or may even be remotely located over a network. An implementation method for disaggregating the secure execution environment is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander Frank, Curt A. Steeb, Isaac P. Ahdout, Richard B. Thompson, Thomas G. Phillips, William J. Westerinen, Zhangwei Xu
  • Patent number: 8190923
    Abstract: The claimed method and system monitors computer system timer(s) relative to other timers to detect discrepancies and/or may capture an offset to provide a method of more accurately determining a current time. The invention may also provide a method to detect power source tampering using a last known good time and may provide a means to securely initialize system time using an encrypted time stamp.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Kurt Daverman, Rajagopal K. Venkatachalam, Zhangwei Xu, Isaac P. Ahdout, Ricardo Lopez-Barquilla
  • Patent number: 8176564
    Abstract: A system and method for monitoring a computer, particularly a pay-per-use computer, uses an isolated computing environment or supervisor. The isolated computing environment boots prior to any boot device associated with an operating system, runs concurrently with the operating system and monitors and measures the computer in operation. Once the isolated computing environment determines the computer is not in compliance with the required policies, the isolated computing environment may either impose an impediment to use such as slowing clock speed or completely disable the operating system. The user may have to return the computer to a service provider to restore it from the offending condition and reset the computer to an operational state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander Frank, Curt A. Steeb, Isaac P. Ahdout, James S. Duffus, Martin Hall, Nicholas Temple, Rajagopal Venkatachalam, Thomas Phillips, Zhangwei Xu
  • Publication number: 20120005721
    Abstract: A processing unit for use in an electronic device includes standard instruction processing and communication interfaces and also includes functional capability in addition to or in place of those found in an operating system. A secure memory within the processing unit may contain a hardware identifier, policy data, and subsystem functions such as a secure clock, policy management, and policy enforcement. Data in functions within the secure memory are not accessible from outside the processing unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2011
    Publication date: January 5, 2012
    Inventors: Zhangwei Xu, Thomas G. Phillips, Alexander Frank, Curt A. Steeb, Isaac P. Ahdout, Martin H. Hall, James S. Duffus
  • Patent number: 8073779
    Abstract: An electronic device, such as, a computer, may be adapted for self-monitoring for compliance to an operating policy. The operating policy may specify a pay-per-use or subscription business model and measurements associated with compliant usage. A secure execution environment may measure usage in accordance with the business model as well as monitor and enforce compliance to the operating policy. To increase the difficulty of attacking or otherwise disabling the secure execution environment, elements of the secure execution environment may be distributed. The distribution points may include other functional elements of the computer, such as interface circuits, or may even be remotely located over a network. An implementation method for disaggregating the secure execution environment is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Alexander Frank, Curt A. Steeb, Isaac P. Ahdout, Richard B. Thompson, Thomas G. Phillips, William J. Westerinen, Zhangwei Xu
  • Publication number: 20080184283
    Abstract: A management console may be used to monitor available usage on a pay-per-use electronic device, such as a pay-per-use computer. When the management console determines that any of tie monitored electronic devices has reached a trigger level the management console may re-charge the electronic device with value. The value may be taken from a local pool of value stored at the management console or the an add-value transaction may be generated at the management console on behalf of the pay-per-use electronic device. In an Internet cafe or similar environment, the use of the management console shields individual users from usage purchase transactions for individual pay-per-use electronic devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 6, 2007
    Publication date: July 31, 2008
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Michelle Maislen, Garrett R. Vargas, Curt Andrew Steeb, Jeffrey Alan Herold, Martin H. Hall, Isaac P. Ahdout
  • Publication number: 20080047024
    Abstract: To enforce contractual usage terms on an electronic device, such as a computer, a security function or circuit may consume all the devices processing power except enough to run a restoration program. The security function may provide problems or challenges for the processor to solve that are designed to consume all but a fraction of the processors compute power. Another embodiment occupies nearly all the device's system memory with a pattern and requires the device to respond to requests related to the memory contents. Both approaches place time limits on the response to help ensure the resource allocations are not being avoided. The security circuit may reset the computer when an incorrect or when no response is received within the time limit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2006
    Publication date: February 21, 2008
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Alexander Frank, Isaac P. Ahdout, William J. Westerinen
  • Publication number: 20070150959
    Abstract: To put developers or other user or administrative personnel on notice that IP rights exist corresponding to an interprocess message, a trademarked or copyrighted value may be included in an interprocess message and validated by a receiving process before acceptance of the message.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2005
    Publication date: June 28, 2007
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Isaac P. Ahdout, Martin H. Hall