Patents by Inventor John Gerard Speare

John Gerard Speare 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: 8769492
    Abstract: Disclosed is a computerized system and method for dynamically applying a rights management policy to a message by allowing an administrator to associate certain rights management policies with certain senders and recipients of messages, with groups of users possessing certain common criteria which define the users and groups of users, with certain attributes of the message, and with certain environmental attributes. In some embodiments, an administrator is allowed to automatically update a rights management protected message as it passes through a message transfer agent. The administrator may determine either on a regular interval or an ad-hoc basis that the message transfer agent scan the messages stored to determine whether or not the content has expired. If the content has indeed expired the administrator may take steps to have the expired content deleted entirely, refreshed with more current content, or replaced with a tombstone indicating that the original content has expired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John Gerard Speare, Christopher Frederick Graham, Peter David Waxman
  • Patent number: 8117595
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for dynamically applying a rights management policy to a message by allowing an administrator to associate certain rights management policies with certain senders and recipients of messages, with groups of users possessing certain common criteria which define the users and groups of users, with certain attributes of the message, and with certain environmental attributes. Also disclosed is a method for allowing an administrator to automatically update a rights management protected message as it passes through a message transfer agent. The administrator may determine either on a regular interval or an ad-hoc basis that the message transfer agent scan the messages stored to determine whether or not the content has expired. If the content has indeed expired the administrator may take steps to have the expired content deleted entirely, refreshed with more current content, or replaced with a tombstone indicating that the original content has expired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John Gerard Speare, Christopher Frederick Graham, Peter David Waxman
  • Publication number: 20120023595
    Abstract: Disclosed is a computerized system and method for dynamically applying a rights management policy to a message by allowing an administrator to associate certain rights management policies with certain senders and recipients of messages, with groups of users possessing certain common criteria which define the users and groups of users, with certain attributes of the message, and with certain environmental attributes. In some embodiments, an administrator is allowed to automatically update a rights management protected message as it passes through a message transfer agent. The administrator may determine either on a regular interval or an ad-hoc basis that the message transfer agent scan the messages stored to determine whether or not the content has expired. If the content has indeed expired the administrator may take steps to have the expired content deleted entirely, refreshed with more current content, or replaced with a tombstone indicating that the original content has expired.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2011
    Publication date: January 26, 2012
    Inventors: John Gerard Speare, Christopher Frederick Graham, Peter David Waxman
  • Patent number: 7430754
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for dynamically applying a rights management policy to a message by allowing an administrator to associate certain rights management policies with certain senders and recipients of messages, with groups of users possessing certain common criteria which define the users and groups of users, with certain attributes of the message, and with certain environmental attributes. Also disclosed is a method for allowing an administrator to automatically update a rights management protected message as it passes through a message transfer agent. The administrator may determine either on a regular interval or an ad-hoc basis that the message transfer agent scan the messages stored to determine whether or not the content has expired. If the content has indeed expired the administrator may take steps to have the expired content deleted entirely, refreshed with more current content, or replaced with a tombstone indicating that the original content has expired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John Gerard Speare, Peter David Waxman, Marco A. DeMello
  • Patent number: 7284263
    Abstract: The present invention provides the ability to compare and enforce policies between trusted entities within a rights management system. For example, policies between the two entities may be received by either entity. They may then be compared to determine the compatibility of the two policies. If compatible, or maybe even without the comparison, other embodiments provide for message server use license, which allows access to the protected portion of a message, thereby permitting an entity to enforce its message policies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Malcolm H. Davis, Peter D. Waxman, John Gerard Speare, Roy Williams
  • Patent number: 7210165
    Abstract: The present invention allows for a pre-licensing process for content that is subject to rights management in order to allow a principal access to the content when the principal does not have access to the rights management server. Rather than requiring the principal to submit a rights account certificate and request for a use license to the rights management server, the present invention allows the message server to obtain a use license on behalf of the principal. Accordingly, the principal can access the use license from the message server and decrypt protected content without having to request the use license from the rights management server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John Gerard Speare, Malcolm H. Davis, Peter D. Waxman, Marco A. DeMello, Christopher F. Graham, Jason M. Cahill
  • Patent number: 7181761
    Abstract: The present invention provides the ability to compare and enforce policies between trusted entities within a rights management system. For example, policies between the two entities may be received by either entity. They may then be compared to determine the compatibility of the two policies. If compatible, or maybe even without the comparison, other embodiments provide for message server use license, which allows access to the protected portion of a message, thereby permitting an entity to enforce its message policies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2007
    Assignee: Micosoft Corporation
    Inventors: Malcolm H. Davis, Peter D. Waxman, John Gerard Speare, Roy Williams