Invalidity dossier
US 5765152
Added 9/23/2026, 5:48:23 PM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US5765152A
Title: System and method for managing copyrighted electronic media
Inventor: John S. Erickson
Original Assignee: Dartmouth College (later listed assignees include Digimarc Corp; a National Science Foundation confirmatory license is noted)
Application No.: US08/543,161
Priority/Filing Date: 1995-10-13
Publication (Grant) Date: 1998-06-09
Legal Status: Expired – Lifetime (anticipated expiration 2015-10-13), per the listed status
Classifications: G06F21/10 and G06F21/105 (DRM; software license management); H04L63/10 and H04L63/105 (network access control; multiple security levels)
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US5765152](/patent/US5765152)/en
Purpose (plain language): The patent addresses copyright infringement and theft of electronic media over the Internet, LANs and WANs. Existing measures — textual "watermark" warnings, passwords, on-line access charges, or encryption — either ensure free access, restrict access without addressing derivative-use permissions, or leave copyright heritage and permissions unresolved. The invention instead provides secure electronic copyright management and automatic identification of ownership of creative works distributed as digital/electronic media, particularly over computer networks.
Scope as described: Electronic media is packaged into a secure "DOCUMENT" format comprising a data container plus a minimum permissions data set specifying minimum authorizations needed to view or access the media. The DOCUMENT may also include a document header, document identifier, a sourceworks extensions module maintaining a bibliographic history, and a digital signature for authentication. The DOCUMENT is registered on a registration server and licensed through an authorization server; potential licensees view it under the minimum permissions and may obtain a license granting an auxiliary permissions data set. The invention also supports licensing derivative works, with sourceworks extensions recording original and derivative authorship (a copyright "family tree"), and a usage module recording selected information about each user who accesses the media.
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not reproduce or characterize the claims, does not identify or discuss prior art, does not address litigation, validity, or enforceability, and gives only an incomplete (excerpted) description; ownership/assignment entries are listings only and are not a legal conclusion.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:43:16 PM
Cases on file (0)
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Litigation summary
Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.
Proceedings on file (0)
All PTAB activity →AIA trial proceedings (IPR / PGR / CBM) filed at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board against this patent. Sourced from the USPTO Open Data Portal and refreshed every six hours; each proceeding number deep-links to the PTAB E2E docket.
No PTAB proceedings on file. This patent has not been challenged via IPR, PGR, or CBM. The absence is itself a signal — well-asserted patents eventually attract IPRs. The LLM analysis below may surface filings the ODP feed hasn’t indexed yet.
PTAB challenges
AIA trial proceedings at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board — IPR, PGR, and CBM. Petitioners, judge panels, claim-level invalidation outcomes from Final Written Decisions, and Federal Circuit appeals. The single most important defensive datapoint after litigation history.
Assignment history
Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.
Prior art
Earlier patents, publications, and products that may anticipate or render the claims unpatentable.
Obviousness
Combinations of prior art that suggest the claimed invention would have been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Extensions
Patent term adjustments, term extensions, continuations, divisionals, family members, and expiration dates.
Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.