US 6950943

Patent Overview — US 6,950,943 B1

Title: System for electronic repository of data enforcing access control on data search and retrieval

Patent number: US 6,950,943 B1
Application number: US 09/459,240
Inventors: Hamid Bacha; Robert Bruce Carroll; Lev Mirlas; Sung Wei Tchao
Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)
Priority date: 1998-12-23
Filing date: 1999-12-10
Publication (grant) date: 2005-09-27
Legal status as listed: Expired – Fee Related; anticipated expiration 2019-12-10

Purpose. The patent addresses electronic data storage and provides "a secure data repository and exchange system administered by a third party data custodian in which access control is enforced on data search and retrieval." It responds to a problem in conventional third-party repositories, where unencrypted deposited documents must be trusted to the repository administrator, and where decryption would require the originator's private key or a trusted proxy.

Plain-language scope. Per the supplied definitions, the system includes a communications environment housing a first agent program for a depositor computer and a second agent program for a user computer with access privileges. A manifest, accessible to and maintained by the first agent program, holds access controls; the user computer keeps its own record of access privileges, maintained by the second agent program. Manifest changes affecting a user's privileges are communicated between agent programs so the user's record is updated, and the first agent program can verify the user's privileges before releasing a data file. The disclosed process covers updating a manifest, identifying affected computers, communicating changes, updating privilege records, and conveying updated records. The preferred embodiment is built using the IBM Vault Registry product, said to rely on U.S. application Ser. No. 980,022, incorporated by reference.

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6950943/en

What the excerpt does not establish. The supplied text does not include the full claims, complete written description, or drawing contents (figure images are not provided as text). It also does not establish prosecution history, the scope or validity of any claim, ownership transfers, or litigation. Figures are referenced (FIGS. 1–7) but their contents are not described here.