Patents by Inventor Yacov Yacobi

Yacov Yacobi 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).

  • Publication number: 20050086486
    Abstract: An implementation of a technology is described herein that facilitates rights enforcement of digital goods using watermarks. More particularly, it is a fingerprinting technology for protecting digital goods by detecting collusion as a malicious attack and identifying the participating colluders. If a digital pirate breaks one client and enables this client to avoid watermark detection, all content (both marked/protected an unmarked/free) can be played as unmarked only on that particular client. However, to enable other clients to play content as unmarked, the digital pirate needs to collude the extracted detection keys from many clients in order to create content that can evade watermark detection on all clients. The described implementation significantly improves collusion resistance through a fingerprinting mechanism that can identify the members of a malicious coalition even when their numbers are several orders of magnitude greater than what conventional collusion-protection schemes can accomplish.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2004
    Publication date: April 21, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Yacov Yacobi, Henrique Malvar, Darko Kirovski
  • Publication number: 20050081042
    Abstract: A technique for imparting substantial break-once-run-everywhere (BORE) resistance to passive and active software objects, and for controlling access and use of resulting protected objects by a client computer (400). Specifically, a relatively large number, n, of identical watermarks (1720) are embedded throughout a software object (1700), through use of n different secret watermark keys to form a protected object, with each key defining a pointer to a location in the protected object at which a corresponding watermark appears.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 20, 2004
    Publication date: April 14, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ramarathnam Venkatesan, Yacov Yacobi
  • Publication number: 20050060550
    Abstract: An implementation of a technology is described herein that facilitates rights enforcement of digital goods using watermarks. More particularly, it is a fingerprinting technology for protecting digital goods by detecting collusion as a malicious attack and identifying the participating colluders. If a digital pirate breaks one client and enables this client to avoid watermark detection, all content (both marked/protected an unmarked/free) can be played as unmarked only on that particular client. However, to enable other clients to play content as unmarked, the digital pirate needs to collude the extracted detection keys from many clients in order to create content that can evade watermark detection on all clients. The described implementation significantly improves collusion resistance through a fingerprinting mechanism that can identify the members of a malicious coalition even when their numbers are several orders of magnitude greater than what conventional collusion-protection schemes can accomplish.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2004
    Publication date: March 17, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Yacov Yacobi, Henrique Malvar, Darko Kirovski
  • Publication number: 20050039022
    Abstract: A technique for imparting substantial break-once-run-everywhere (BORE) resistance to passive and active software objects, and for controlling access and use of resulting protected objects by a client computer (400). Specifically, a relatively large number, n, of identical watermarks (1720) are embedded throughout a software object (1700), through use of n different secret watermark keys to form a protected object, with each key defining a pointer to a location in the protected object at which a corresponding watermark appears.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2004
    Publication date: February 17, 2005
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ramarathnam Venkatesan, Yacov Yacobi
  • Publication number: 20040218759
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for protecting copyrighted information, e.g., video signals, from unauthorized copying. Analog red (R), green (G) and blue (B) video signals are transmitted from a source device, e.g., a display adapter, to a display device, e.g., a monitor, over corresponding analog signal lines after the identify of the destination device is confirmed by receipt of a certificate assigned to the destination device. A session key, used for encrypting the analog signals, is generated and exchanged between the source and destination devices after the identification of the destination device is confirmed. The source and destination devices each includes a pseudo-random number generator driven by the session key. The lines that carry the R, G and B video signals are changed, e.g., swapped, on a periodic basis as a function of the output of the pseudo-random number generator in the source device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 26, 2004
    Publication date: November 4, 2004
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Yacov Yacobi, Paul England, Gideon A. Yuval
  • Patent number: 6801999
    Abstract: A technique for imparting substantial break-once-run-everywhere (BORE) resistance to passive and active software objects, and for controlling access and use of resulting protected objects by a client computer (400). Specifically, a relatively large number, n, of identical watermarks (1720) are embedded throughout a software object (1700), through use of n different secret watermark keys to form a protected object, with each key defining a pointer to a location in the protected object at which a corresponding watermark appears. Once a user has downloaded a protected object through a client computer, the user transacts with a publisher's web server (335) to obtain an electronic license, cryptographically signed by the publisher to an enforcer (600, 600′) located in that client computer, which specifies rights, which the publisher accords, for accessing and using this object, to this computer and an “expected” value of a parameter contained in the watermarks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2004
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ramarathnam Venkatesan, Yacov Yacobi
  • Patent number: 6754364
    Abstract: Methods and systems for fingerprinting digital data are described. In the described embodiment, Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) technology is utilized. Unique fingerprinting words are defined where each includes at least one spread sequence. In the described embodiment, a fingerprinting word comprises a plurality symbols, called “&Ggr; symbols.” Each &Ggr; symbol is composed of 2c-1 blocks, where c represents the number of colluders that are desired to be protected against. Each block contains d spread sequence chips. The fingerprinting words are assigned to a plurality of entities to which protected objects embedded with the fingerprinting words are to be distributed. To ascertain the identity of an entity that has altered its unique fingerprinting word, the relative weight of each block is computed in accordance with a defined function and blocks whose weights satisfy a predetermined relationship are “clipped” to a so-called working range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2004
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Yacov Yacobi
  • Publication number: 20040071314
    Abstract: Methods and systems for fingerprinting digital data are described. In the described embodiment, Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) technology is utilized. Unique fingerprinting words are defined where each includes at least one spread sequence. In one embodiment, a fingerprinting word comprises a plurality symbols, called “&Ggr; symbols.” Each &Ggr; symbol is composed of 2c-1 blocks, where c represents the number of colluders that are desired to be protected against. Each block contains d spread sequence chips. The fingerprinting words are assigned to a plurality of entities to which protected objects embedded with the fingerprinting words are to be distributed. To ascertain the identity of an entity that has altered its unique fingerprinting word, the relative weight of each block is computed in accordance with a defined function and blocks whose weights satisfy a predetermined relationship are “clipped” to a so-called working range.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2003
    Publication date: April 15, 2004
    Inventor: Yacov Yacobi
  • Publication number: 20030009671
    Abstract: An implementation of a technology is described herein that facilitates rights enforcement of digital goods using watermarks. More particularly, it is a fingerprinting technology for protecting digital goods by detecting collusion as a malicious attack and identifying the participating colluders. If a digital pirate breaks one client and enables this client to avoid watermark detection, all content (both marked/protected an unmarked/free) can be played as unmarked only on that particular client. However, to enable other clients to play content as unmarked, the digital pirate needs to collude the extracted detection keys from many clients in order to create content that can evade watermark detection on all clients. The described implementation significantly improves collusion resistance through a fingerprinting mechanism that can identify the members of a malicious coalition even when their numbers are several orders of magnitude greater than what conventional collusion-protection schemes can accomplish.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 23, 2001
    Publication date: January 9, 2003
    Inventors: Yacov Yacobi, Henrique Malvar, Darko Kirovski
  • Publication number: 20020191809
    Abstract: Described herein is an audio watermarking technology for detecting watermarks in audio signals, such as a music clip. The watermark identifies the content producer, providing a signature that is embedded in the audio signal and cannot be removed. The watermark is designed to survive all typical kinds of processing and all types of malicious attacks that attempt to remove or modify the watermark from the signal. The implementations of the watermark detecting system, described herein, support quick, efficient, and accurate detection of watermarks by the specifically designed watermark detecting system. In one described implementation, a watermark detecting system employs an improved normalized covariance test to determine the presence of a watermark using less expensive materials (hardware), quicker calculations, and a more accurate test (than the original correlation test).
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2001
    Publication date: December 19, 2002
    Inventors: Darko Kirovski, Yacov Yacobi
  • Publication number: 20010007080
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for treating a male for impotence, i.e., for enabling, or improving the ability of, the male to achieve or maintain a penile erection of adequate rigidity for sexual intercourse, by applying monochromatic light radiation, preferably low-power laser radiation of a wavelength of 440 nm, to the penis of the male, sufficient to induce relaxation of the walls of the blood vessels supplying blood to the corpora cavernosa of the penis.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2001
    Publication date: July 5, 2001
    Applicant: Inventis
    Inventors: Shuki Sheinman, Abraham Ami Sidi, Yacov Yacobi
  • Patent number: 6241752
    Abstract: An apparatus for treating a male for impotence, i.e., for enabling, or improving the ability of, the male to achieve or maintain a penile erection of adequate rigidity for sexual intercourse, by applying monochromatic light radiation, preferably low-power laser radiation of a wavelength of 440 nm, to the penis of the male, sufficient to induce relaxation of the walls of the blood vessels supplying blood to the corpora cavernosa of the penis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1998
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2001
    Assignee: Inventis
    Inventors: Shuki Sheinman, Abraham Ami Sidi, Yacov Yacobi
  • Patent number: 5878138
    Abstract: An electronic asset system includes tamper-resistant electronic wallets that store non-transferable electronic assets. To break such tamper-resistant wallets, the criminal is expected to spend an initial investment to defeat the tamper-resistant protection. The electronic assets are uniquely issued by an institution to a wallet (anonymously or non-anonymously). During expenditure, the electronic assets are transferred from the wallet to a recipient. Since the assets are non-transferable, they are marked as exhausted assets upon expenditure. The recipient then batch deposits the received electronic assets with a collecting institution (which may or may not be the same as the issuing institution). A fraud detection system samples a subset of the exhausted assets received by the recipient to detect "bad" assets which have been used in a fraudulent manner. Upon detection, the fraud detection system identifies the electronic wallet that used the bad asset and marks it as a "bad wallet".
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 1996
    Date of Patent: March 2, 1999
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Yacov Yacobi
  • Patent number: 5872844
    Abstract: An electronic asset system includes tamper-resistant electronic wallets that store transferable electronic assets. To break such tamper-resistant wallets, the criminal is expected to spend an initial investment to defeat the tamper-resistant protection. The electronic assets are issued by an institution to a wallet (anonymously or non-anonymously). During expenditure, the electronic assets are transferred from a payer wallet to a payee wallet. The payee wallets routinely submit the transferred assets for possible audit. A fraud detection system samples the assets submitted for audit to detect "bad" assets which have been used in a fraudulent manner. Upon detection, the fraud detection system identifies the electronic wallet that used the bad asset and marks it as a "bad wallet". The fraud detection system compiles a list of bad electronic wallets and distributes the list to warn other wallets of the bad electronic wallets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 1996
    Date of Patent: February 16, 1999
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Yacov Yacobi
  • Patent number: 5633928
    Abstract: A key escrow technique is disclosed which permits cryptographic limits on wiretapping warrants. Specifically, time limits on wiretaps may be enforced. In addition, the wiretapper is targeted to a specific party or specific pairs of parties communicating in a network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 1995
    Date of Patent: May 27, 1997
    Assignee: Bell Communications Research, Inc.
    Inventors: Arjen K. Lenstra, Peter M. Winkler, Yacov Yacobi
  • Patent number: 5588061
    Abstract: A method for improving an RSA cryptosystem by generating a user private exponent key, having an associated modulus N, and a user public exponent key for each user of the system. Each user's public exponent key is provided to all users of the system. Each user's private exponent key is divided into a two user key portions. A first user key portion is maintained exclusively by the user for whom the associated private exponent key was generated. A second user key portion is entrusted to one or more other users of the RSA system. The bit length of the first user key portion is no greater than fifteen percent of the bit length of the associated modulus N but not less than 56 bits. The two portions of the private exponent key may be used by two users to exchange two numbers, the product of which is used as a session key to secure communications between the two users. The portions of the private exponent key may also be used by different users to verify the identity of each to the other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 1994
    Date of Patent: December 24, 1996
    Assignees: Bell Atlantic Network Services, Inc., Bell Communications Research, Inc.
    Inventors: Ravi Ganesan, Yacov Yacobi
  • Patent number: 5511121
    Abstract: A unique electronic cash system protects the privacy of users in legitimate transactions while at the same time enabling the detection of a double spender of the same electronic coin. The electronic cash system takes advantage of a unique property of El Gamal signatures to achieve these results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 23, 1996
    Assignee: Bell Communications Research, Inc.
    Inventor: Yacov Yacobi
  • Patent number: 5406628
    Abstract: A method for achieving mutual authentication and session key agreement between a first party 12 which has minimal computational resources and a second party 18 which has substantial computational resources utilizes a modular square root operation for certificate authentication and key distribution and an ElGamal, NIST DSS, or other efficient signature operation for obtaining the signature of a message. Theses operations are highly advantageous in a system with asymmetric resources because the computation power required to perform these operations is far less than the computation power required to invert these operations. The entire mutual authentication and session key agreement method can be carried out using only between one and three modular multiplications on the weak computational side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 1993
    Date of Patent: April 11, 1995
    Assignee: Bell Communications Research, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael J. Beller, Yacov Yacobi
  • Patent number: 5299263
    Abstract: A method for achieving mutual authentication and session key agreement between a first party 12 which has minimal computational resources and a second party 18 which has substantial computational resources utilizes a modular square root operation for certificate authentication and key distribution and an ElGamal, NIST DSS, or other efficient signature operation for obtaining the signature of a message. These operations are highly advantageous in a system with asymmetric resources because the computation power required to perform these operations is far less than the computation power required to invert these operations. The entire mutual authentication and session key agreement method can be carried out using only three modular multiplications on the weak computational side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 1993
    Date of Patent: March 29, 1994
    Assignee: Bell Communications Research, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael J. Beller, Yacov Yacobi
  • Patent number: 5245656
    Abstract: A method for operating customized information services via a network comprising transmitting the identity U of an end-user station via the network to a name translator station. At the name translator station, the identity U of the end-user station is translated into a pseudonym U'. The pseudonym U' is transmitted from the name translator station via the network to a filter station. The pseudonym U' is transmitted from the filter station via the network to a service provider station. In response, the service provider station transmits to the filter station an encrypted information description describing information available from the service provider station. At the filter station, the encrypted information description is compared with an encrypted information profile of the end-user station to identify specific information to be transmitted from the service provider station to the end-user station.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 1992
    Date of Patent: September 14, 1993
    Assignee: Bell Communications Research, Inc.
    Inventors: Shoshana K. Loeb, Yacov Yacobi