WIBU Systems AG: Owner of a Patent on a Digital Rights Managment Business Model
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WIBU Systems AG, a German digital rights managment software company, is being paraded as an example Small or Medium Enterprise (SME) that need's the EU Council's text on software patentability in order to secure the validity of a patent on its business model, the only one that WIBU owns. Siemens and EICTA have identified this patent as relating to a "computer-implemented invention" that "makes a technical contribution", in the correct meaning of the term as used by the European Patent Office and the Commission and Council. For once, they are not lying about the Council's proposal.
News & Chronology
2005-04-07 DIHK event in Munich: Siemens patent attorney Kai Brandt allocates part of his speaking time to WIBU CEO and patent inventor Oliver Winzenried so as to more credibly argue the case that !SMEs need patents on "computer-implemented inventions" as allowed by the Council but not by the EP. In his speech, Winzenried explains that they own only one EPO patent, that this took more than 4 years to grant, that the process was expensive, and that other companies' DRM patents are causing WIBU some trouble. However, Winzenried says that these experiences are not a sufficient reason to oppose software patentability, because business works like that in other fields as well.
2005-04-00 A patent propaganda film on a patent lobby website shows WIBU as an SME that needs patents on "computer-implemented inventions" as authorised by the Council.
WIBU-Patent EP 1184771
Hartmut Pilch comments: It should be noted that the claims are directed neither to a new device nor to some new mathematical magic but to a computer-implemented business model, whose main features seems to be that licensing parameters are transmitted by a key which is distinct from the key that is used for encoding and decoding.
Siemens patent lawyer Kai Brandt has been touting this patent as an example of a "computer-implemented invention" that "makes a technical contribution" and would be grantable only under the Council's paper but not under that of the Parliament.
Main Claim as granted by EPO
1. Method of protecting computer software and/or computer-readable data against unauthorised use, comprising the steps:
- encoding of the software or data by the licensor as a function of licence parameters containing a User Code (UC) allocated by the licensor of the software or the data, which together initiate the encoding;
- storage of the encoded software or data on a data carrier of the licensee;
- encoded transmission of the licence parameters from the licensor to the licensee;
- storage of the licence parameters in a non-volatile memory of the licensee;
- automatic decoding of the software or data by means of a decoder as a function of the stored licence parameters during the use of the software or data by the licensee;
characterised in that
- the encoding of the software or data is initialised as a function of a secret Firm Key (FK) freely selected by the licensor;
- the encoding of the transmission of the licence parameters takes place as afunction of a secret Private Serial Key (SK);
- the decoding of the software or data is initialised as a function of the Firm Key (FK) selected by the licensor.
