Intermediary Rights Management via IP-Based Repository Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Organizations face inefficiencies in managing reuse rights for content due to the complexity of multiple vendors and license clearinghouses, leading to unnecessary charges and lack of awareness about previously acquired rights, as vendors cannot access client-specific license repositories.
Innovation Solution
A customer of the license clearinghouse can act as an intermediary, using an IP address to access the central repository and determine available rights on behalf of another client, enabling informed pricing and service levels by searching for customer IDs and keywords in the repository.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a vendor directly accesses the central repository to check rights, then the vendor can be aware of previously acquired rights, but the vendor cannot access client-specific portions of the repository due to access restrictions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary customer (the organization) that acts as a mediator between the vendor and the central repository. The intermediary has authorized access to the central repository and can retrieve rights information on behalf of the vendor. This resolves the access restriction problem by using an entity that both the vendor and the repository can interact with, allowing the vendor to obtain rights information without direct access to the repository.
2Adaptability or versatility
If an organization maintains its own virtual database for rights management, then the organization can manage its own rights, but the vendor cannot determine what rights the organization has already purchased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the intermediary customer queries the central repository using the vendor's request parameters and receives rights information that is then communicated back to the vendor. This feedback loop allows the vendor to become aware of previously acquired rights without compromising the organization's independent rights management capabilities. The intermediary translates between the vendor's inquiry and the repository's data structure.
3Productivity
If the license clearinghouse maintains a central repository for all customers, then rights information is centralized, but individual customers can only access their own portions of the repository
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the intermediary customer serve multiple functions: it acts as both a regular customer with its own rights management needs and as a representative for other customers (vendors) seeking rights information. This multi-functionality allows the intermediary to query any portion of the central repository on behalf of different vendors while maintaining its own access rights, effectively bridging the gap between centralized storage and distributed access needs.
Data Source
AI summary
One customer of the license clearinghouse may act as an intermediary and perform selected tasks on behalf of another customer. In particular, an intermediary customer can make rights inquiries that access the portion of the central repository that belongs to its client in order to determine rights available to the client. In one embodiment, the portion of the central repository that is accessed in response to a rights inquiry is determined by an IP address of the device being used to make the rights inquiry. This IP address is used to retrieve a record having a customer ID and a field that indicates whether the IP address corresponds to a rights intermediary. If this is the case, a keyword corresponding to the customer ID of the customer that is provided in the rights request by the rights intermediary is used to access the central repository.