The present invention relates to automated computing, and deals more particularly with techniques for encoding ownership transfer transactions directly onto a product (such as by using radio-frequency identification, or “RFID”, technology) in a secure manner.
Electronic article surveillance (“EAS”) technologies have been used for many years to protect assets and merchandise from theft. The basic principle behind most prior-art EAS systems includes using a transmitter to create an electromagnetic field across a store's exit area and a receiver than can detect variations in the field. Small tuned circuits or magnetic material inside security tags that pass through the exit modify the field enough for the receiver to detect the change and activate an alarm. A retailer typically attaches the security tags to high-risk items, and the EAS notifies him or her when a tag passes through the exit field. The security tag must be removed or deactivated at the point of sale to prevent the alarm from sounding.
More recently, a new technology called Radio Frequency Identification, or “RFID”, has been introduced for labeling items of merchandise and tracking their physical location, and may be used from manufacturing through distribution and retail sale. RFID differs from passive EAS technologies in several important ways. An RFID tag includes both passive elements (an antenna) and active elements (typically a read-write data memory, control circuitry, and a radio frequency transponder). RFID tags are typically not self-powered, but may receive their power via capacitative coupling from an external radio frequency source. When brought into proximity with an RFID reader at a typical effective distance of about 1 centimeter to 5 meters (depending on the type of tag), the RFID tag receives sufficient power for clocking the semiconductor and analog portions comprising its transponder, control circuits, and data memory through enough clock cycles that the tag can return the data bits from its memory as a digitally-encoded radio frequency signal. This is advantageous because the tag can be read (or written) from a distance without the necessity of line-of-sight, as had been required to read a bar code with a laser scanner.
A representative RFID tag 100 of the prior art is illustrated in
The capacity of an RFID tag's data memory today is typically 5 to 256 bytes. The memory typically stores an Electronic Product Code or “EPC” that assigns a searchable number to each object that bears an RFID tag. Whereas the Universal Product Code or “UPC” commonly used in bar-coding applications identifies a product only by product type, an EPC goes farther and identifies a consumer product individually. Present versions of the EPC use 96 bits of information: an 8-bit header, two sets of 24 bits identifying the manufacturer and product type, and a 40-bit serial number. Ninety-six bits encode enough information to uniquely identify trillions of objects. (See “Beyond the Bar Code” and companion article “What's My Number” by Charlie Schmidt, Technology Review Magazine, March 2001, p. 80-85.)
Rather than an EPC, an RFID tag of the prior art may bear an item SKU (“stock-keeping unit”) and a unique item serial number. An SKU is an identifier used for categorizing products, for example by item type. The serial number may be globally unique, or unique within the SKU number. A combination of SKU and serial number may therefore be used to uniquely identify a particular item of that particular type. References herein to using an EPC on an RFID tag are therefore by way of illustration and not of limitation. Whether using an EPC or an SKU with serial number with an RFID tag, this identifying information is stored in the small memory area on the RFID tag.
RFID technology has generally been utilized for inventory control (e.g., in a warehouse, manufacturing, or distribution facility) and for item identification at the point of sale as an improvement over today's nearly-ubiquitous laser-scanned bar codes. The use of RFID to deter theft has been suggested in several contexts. Notably, early RFID literature suggested that RFID could prevent employees from stealing items from a store's inventory by improving inventory control. The literature also suggested that RFID could deter theft in the distribution chain between the manufacturer and retailer by actively monitoring inventory in trucks and shipping containers to ensure that merchandise was not diverted to unintended destinations.
The passive transponder in an RFID chip can return a series of bits, such as the EPC, on command. Some kinds of RFID tags are also updateable, providing a small amount of read/write storage. With reference to
Commonly-assigned and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/790,104 (filed on Feb. 21, 2001; now U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,834), titled “Method To Address Security And Privacy Issues of the Use of RFID Systems to Track Consumer Products” (attorney docket RSW920000178US1, hereinafter referred to as “the first related invention” and hereby incorporated herein by reference) discloses overwriting an RFID tag's memory with new data, such as a shortened version of the product's serial number, at a point of sale to signify that the tagged item has been paid for. This patent application also discloses formatting the data memory on an RFID tag with control bits, thereby providing a type field to dictate access control such as whether a field can be overwritten. According to preferred embodiments of this first related invention, logic invoked when an update of the data memory is requested checks the associated control field, and if updating is not allowed, the logic exits rather than performing the update. Using the disclosed techniques, an unscrupulous store employee can be prevented from reprogramming the RFID tag of an expensive item with data representing an inexpensive item in order to pay a lower price for the expensive item.
RFID tags can be created using very inexpensive manufacturing techniques; the antenna portion can be printed on packaging material with conductive carbon ink, and the semiconductor portion—as small as 3 millimeters square—can be mounted to the antenna with glue. The cost of RFID tags is expected to decline to the point of being cost-effective even on small-value retail items. Thus one can assume that in the near future, RFID tags on merchandise will become nearly ubiquitous. One can also assume that the capacities of the non-volatile memories in RFID tags will grow far beyond today's typical 256 bytes. It is also likely that advances in data storage technologies will make large, inexpensive write-once read-many (“WORM”) non-volatile memories, which are designed to prevent erasure or overwriting of data, feasible and ubiquitous.
An object of the present invention is to provide an auditable trail of product ownership transfers.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a merchandise-integral record of product ownership transfers.
A further object of the present invention is to establish a secure electronic transaction receipt for a product.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide techniques whereby information securely stored on a product identifies its current owner.
Another object of the present invention is to provide techniques for registering product ownership transfers.
Yet another object of the present invention is to leverage RFID technology in novel ways.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in part in the description and in the drawings which follow and, in part, will be obvious from the description or may be learned by practice of the invention.
To achieve the foregoing objects, and in accordance with the purpose of the invention as broadly described herein, the present invention may be provided as methods, systems, and/or computer program products. In one aspect, the present invention provides techniques for registering ownership transfers, comprising: receiving information describing an ownership transfer of an identified product; assigning a unique identifier to represent the ownership transfer; computing a cryptographic signature over the assigned unique identifier and at least a portion of the received information; and registering the ownership transfer by storing the received information, the computed signature, and the assigned unique identifier in a repository.
The received information may also describe prior ownership transfers of the identified product. The registration of the transfer preferably uses the assigned unique identifier as an index when storing the received information, the computed signature, and the assigned unique identifier in the repository. The assigned unique identifier is preferably provided to the identified product for recording thereupon.
This aspect may further comprise operations, responsive to receiving the information, of: locating information describing a most-recent ownership transfer of the identified product; and continuing with the assigning, computing, and registering only upon determining that a previously-computed cryptographic signature of the located information is valid.
Preferably, the received information is transmitted from product-integral storage of the identified product. This product-integral storage may be, for example, a memory of a radio frequency identification device or a memory of a machine-readable identification device.
In this aspect, the identified product's current owner may be determined by consulting the registered ownership transfer. This aspect may further comprise registering a subsequent ownership transfer of the identified product. Preferably, registration of the subsequent ownership transfer further comprises: receiving, information describing the subsequent ownership transfer; locating information describing the registered ownership transfer; and continuing with the registration of the subsequent ownership transfer if the cryptographic signature of the located information is valid. Continuing with the registration preferably further comprises: assigning a new unique identifier to represent the subsequent ownership transfer; computing a new cryptographic signature over the assigned new unique identifier and at least a portion of the received information describing the subsequent ownership transfer; and registering the subsequent ownership transfer by storing the received information describing the subsequent ownership transfer, the new computed signature, and the new assigned unique identifier in the repository.
In another aspect, the present invention provides techniques for providing a product-integral transaction receipt, comprising: computing, for each transfer of the product, a cryptographic signature over fields describing the transfer; permanently recording the cryptographic signature, along with at least a portion of the fields, on the product; and recording the cryptographic signature and the fields in a separate repository. The permanent recording may use, by way of example, a bar code representation; a matrix code representation; an indelible text representation; or a radio frequency identification device.
In yet another aspect, the present invention provides techniques for establishing a secure electronic transaction receipt for a product, comprising: accessing a product-integral ownership record to determine a current owner of the product; and securely revising the product-integral ownership record to reflect a new owner of the product, pursuant to a transfer of the product, only upon ensuring that a purported transferor in the transfer is the current owner. The securely revising preferably further comprises: computing a cryptographic signature over data pertaining to the transfer; and recording the cryptographic signature, along with at least a portion of the data pertaining to the transfer, in the product-integral ownership record.
This aspect may further comprise logging a record of the transfer in an audit repository. This record may further comprise the cryptographic signature and the data pertaining to the transfer. The data pertaining to the transfer preferably includes a globally-unique identifier associated with the transfer, and this globally-unique identifier is preferably used as an index for logging the record (and is also preferably recorded in the product-integral ownership record).
In still another aspect, the present invention comprises techniques for providing an auditable trail of product transfers, comprising: computing, for each transfer of a particular product, a globally-unique identifier associated with the transfer; computing a cryptographic signature over one or more values describing the transfer; recording the cryptographic signature, the globally-unique identifier, and zero or more of the values in a product-integral ownership repository on the particular product; recording an audit record for the transfer in an audit repository, wherein the audit record comprises the cryptographic signature, the globally-unique identifier, and the values; and tracing transfers of the particular product using each of the audit records that pertains to the particular product. In this aspect, each audit record that pertains to the particular product may further comprise a second globally-unique identifier which is associated with a next-previous transfer of the particular product, in which case the tracing preferably further comprises iteratively using the second globally-unique identifier, when processing the audit record, to locate the audit record which records the next-previous transfer.
The present invention may also be used advantageously in methods of doing business, for example by providing an ownership transfer agent service. In one aspect, this comprises: receiving transfer information for an ownership transfer; creating a unique identifier to represent the transfer; registering the transfer, which preferably includes computing a digital signature over the transfer information and its unique identifier and then logging this transfer record; and (optionally) charging a fee. The fee may be collected under various revenue models, such as subscriptions, pay-per-use billing, monthly or other periodic billing, and so forth. In one approach, the received transfer information preferably comprises a transfer history of the product and values pertaining to the transfer, and the portion over which the digital signature is computed for registering the transfer preferably comprises the transfer history of the product and the values pertaining to the transfer. The transfer agent service may further comprise transmitting, from the transfer agent for recording in a product-integral repository on the product, the globally-unique identifier, the portion of the received transfer information, and the digital signature. In addition or instead, the service may further comprise computing a second digital signature over the values pertaining to the transfer, in which case the digital signature, the second digital signature, and the values pertaining to the transfer are preferably logged during the registration of the transfer.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the following drawings, in which like reference numbers denote the same element throughout.
The present invention provides techniques for writing data directly onto a product to record each ownership transfer. As a result, the product itself now carries a traceable, auditable, non-forgeable, non-repudiable proof of ownership (and, optionally, ownership history) that can be used in a variety of ways. Examples include warranty service, returns, repairs, subsequent ownership transfer, legal proof of ownership, product liability claims, theft deterrence, surveillance, e-business transactions related to just-in-time inventory management, barter, auction, and so forth. Preferably, the information is written onto the product at the time of the ownership transfer (or shortly preceding or following the transfer transaction). This recorded ownership transfer information provides an electronic receipt, which may be used by the present owner to prove his or her ownership. The disclosed techniques enable eventually obsoleting the need for a separate receipt or ownership document.
Preferred embodiments write the ownership data, secured with public key encryption techniques, onto a non-volatile memory on the RFID tag of a product using a read/write RFID transponder, although traditional indelible marking techniques such as engraving, bar codes, 2-dimensional or matrix codes could also be used advantageously for writing this secured ownership data. Alternative embodiments write the secured ownership data on existing products that already contain data memories and input/output capabilities, such as computers and peripherals, pervasive computing devices, consumer electronics, and appliances. (Commonly-assigned and co-pending U.S. Pat. No. 7,069,452, entitled “Methods, Systems and Computer Program Products for Secure Firmware Updates”, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,976,163, entitled “Methods, Systems and Computer Program Products for Rule Based Firmware Updates Utilizing Certificate Extensions and Certificates for Use Therein”, disclose techniques for creating a secure memory within the flash memory of computing devices, consumer electronics, and appliances. The teachings in these commonly-assigned inventions, which were filed on Jul. 12, 2000 and have Ser. Nos. 09/614,982 and 09/614,983, respectively, may be leveraged by alternative embodiments which write ownership data into products containing data memory.)
As a side effect, the disclosed techniques provide an auditable product serial number which can deter counterfeiting.
Each party in the chain of ownership for a product has incentives to keep accurate records concerning that party's acquisition and disposition of the product. Some of these incentives arise because of the possibility of a product liability lawsuit. A consumer would like to be able to prove everyone who has previously owned the product, for example, and anyone who once owned the product would like to be able to prove that ownership was transferred, to whom, and when.
To provide such verifiable records, the present invention uses transaction audit registrars and an expanded-memory RFID chip implementing field-control features of the type described in the first related invention to provide a practical means of implementing a non-repudiable product ownership history. In preferred embodiments, each time product ownership is transferred, a non-changeable GUID representing the transfer is added to the RFID chip on the product, and overwriteable fields representing the details of the last transaction and the signature of an overseeing transaction audit registrar are updated to the RFID chip as well. (The overwriteable fields in the product-integral record, discussed below with reference to
The GUID is a value that uniquely identifies an audit record (i.e., an auditable record of an ownership transfer), and is preferably constructed by a registrar. The audit record is preferably logged on a WORM device (i.e., a device that is distinct from the product-integral record) and may be retrieved as needed by an appropriate authority, such as a court hearing a product liability case, a law enforcement agency investigating a theft, or a trade authority engaged in stopping a gray-market activity. As illustrated by the sample GUID format 200 in
A number of alternative formats may be used for recording product-integral ownership information and also for recording audit records, without deviating from the scope of the present invention. Choice of the record format used for product-integral information, in particular, may depend on the type of device on which the information will be recorded. For example, the format used with a space-constrained RFID chip may be more compact than the format used with a pervasive computing device, which in turn may be more compact that the format used with a laptop or desktop computer. Several alternative formats will now be described with reference to
In
Preferably, fields 310 and 320 are created as read-only fields, whereas fields 330 and 340 are registrar-updateable (i.e., read-write) fields. Last transaction field 330 is logically structured as a registrar-updateable field that comprises a number of sub-fields. A GUID 331 provides a unique identifier for this most-recent transaction. As discussed with reference to
Last transaction field 330 also preferably specifies an ID 332 of the seller and an ID 333 of the buyer. It may be desirable to repeat the date and time 334 of the transaction as a sub-field (or as separate sub-fields), even though this information forms a portion of the GUID in preferred embodiments. Optionally, the price and/or other terms of the transaction may also be recorded, as shown at 335.
Preferably, the digital signature value 340 is computed over fields 310 through 330 (i.e., the entire contents of record 300). As is well known in the art, use of digital signatures generally comprises computing a hash value over a set of fields (such as fields 310 through 330), and then encrypting this hash value using a private key value (in this case, the private key of the registrar) with public key encryption techniques. The resulting digital signature stored in field 340 can then be decrypted only with the registrar's associated public key from the public/private key pair which is represented by the registrar's security certificate (which in preferred embodiments is identified by the short ID within the GUID 331, as has been discussed). If a newly-computed hash over the same set of fields is identical to the decrypted hash value, then the values of those fields were not changed from the values used by the registrar when originally computing the digital signature. In this manner, the digital signature field 340 can be used to determine whether the recorded ownership transfer transaction is legitimate.
In a second sample format 350, illustrated in
In a third sample record format 360, shown in
In a fourth sample record format 370, shown in
In an embodiment where the product-integral ownership information is recorded indelibly using bar codes, matrix codes, indelible ink or other physical markings (rather than an RFID chip or similar technology), the ownership information preferably comprises an engraved or embossed representation of the digitally-signed GUID of each transfer. Each ownership transfer, including the transfer to the current owner, thereby remains permanently on the product as a product-integral ownership transfer log. In this embodiment, a format of the type shown in
According to preferred embodiments, any of the transaction-specific GUID values from an ownership record (such as GUIDs 321-325 and 331 in sample record format 300 of
Details of the associated transaction are recorded in the record 380, as shown in this first sample format at reference numbers 382-385. In addition, the GUID of the previous transaction is preferably recorded, as shown at 386. This previous GUID was discussed with reference to 336 of
This record format 380 may be used with any of the product-integral record formats illustrated in
A second sample format 390 for audit records is illustrated in
Turning now to
As an alternative to the product transferring the entire contents of its on-product ownership information at Block 410, an implementation of the present invention may be adapted for a different approach, where the processing at Block 410 comprises transmitting (for example) only the most-recent transfer information recorded in the RFID chip (illustrated by reference number 330 in
Referring now to
In Block 510, the registrar proceeds to validate the received data. In preferred embodiments, this validation comprises checking the registrar's signature on the transmitted data (i.e., the signature computed for the transfer of ownership to the current owner, which is shown at reference number 340 in
If the digital signature is valid (i.e., a “Yes” response to the test in Block 520) and the credentials are authenticated, the registrar carries out the operations of Blocks 540-580; otherwise, this is an error situation, and error handling is preferably performed (as indicated at Block 530).
The operations of Blocks 540-580 begin with the registrar generating a new GUID for the new transaction that is to be registered (Block 540). At Block 550, a new ownership record is created by the registrar in preferred embodiments, using data from the previous (on-product) ownership record plus data pertaining to the pending transfer. The ownership history portion of the new ownership record preferably includes all previously-existing ownership history data (e.g., field 320 in
The last-transaction sub-field of the new ownership record comprises the new GUID created at Block 540 for the current transaction and the values for the seller ID and buyer ID fields for the current transaction. Preferably, the date and time of the new transaction form part of this new ownership record as well, and other transaction-related information such as the price and/or other transaction terms may also be stored in the new ownership record, as has been discussed with reference to fields 334, 335 of
After the new ownership record has been created, the registrar preferably creates a digital signature (Block 560) over the entire record (with the exception of the digital signature field itself). As has been described, this digital signature is preferably a hash of all the other fields which is then encrypted by the registrar's private key. Computing the digital signature over the entire record, and then storing that digital signature on the product, makes it infeasible to counterfeit or falsify a product-integral ownership record (for example, by copying information from another product or selectively omitting or altering fields on the product-integral record). In addition to, or instead of, computing a digital signature over the entire contents of the new ownership record, a digital signature may be computed over another portion thereof (such as only the last-transaction field, as depicted at 387 in
The data for this transaction is then logged in an audit repository (Block 570), using the newly-generated GUID as an index (as has been discussed with reference to sample formats 380 in
When the information logged at Block 570 includes the entire contents of the ownership history record, as illustrated in
The newly-created ownership record (including its corresponding signature) are returned to the product (Block 580).
Returning again to the discussion of
Preferably, techniques disclosed in the first related invention are leveraged for updating the RFID chip in a secure manner. In particular, control bits are preferably associated with each field in the on-product ownership record, where these control bits indicate what types of operations (such as “read-only” or “read-write”) are allowable on each field. Accordingly, each GUID within the product's ownership transfer history, including the product serial number, is marked as a read-only value in preferred embodiments. In addition, the optional product description field 310 is preferably marked as a read-only value as well. When the registrar creates values for the sub-fields of a new transaction (to be stored within field 330 of
Techniques other than those disclosed in the first related invention may be used to securely store information on the product, without deviating from the scope of the present invention.
In an embodiment where the product-integral ownership record is permanently recorded on the product using engraving, embossing, or similar techniques, the previously-recorded information is typically write-only by definition.
The processing for the current ownership transfer then ends, in preferred embodiments.
When the product code sent at Block 600 is received by the registrar (Block 700), the registrar preferably evaluates this data to determine whether it contains a digital signature (Block 710). If a signature is found, then this is not initialization data, and processing for a new transfer transaction is preferably performed (as shown at Block 720). Otherwise, failing to find a signature, control reaches Block 730, where in preferred embodiments a verification procedure is performed (through procedures which are outside the scope of the novel subject matter of preferred embodiments) to determine whether the requester is allowed to create unique identifiers for the product code (i.e., whether the requester is allowed to request initialization of a product ownership transfer record). If this test has a negative result, this is an error situation, and error handling is preferably invoked (as shown at Block 740). Otherwise, the registrar creates a GUID (Block 750) to be used as the product's serial number. The registrar then creates initial versions of the sub-fields of the last transaction field (Block 760), and computes a signature over these initial GUID and sub-field values (Block 770).
Preferably, the initial versions of the sub-fields of the last transaction field are set at Block 760 as follows: the seller ID is set to the requester's ID; the buyer ID is set to a null value; the date and time are set to the date and time of the request; and the price is set to a null value. Alternatively, initial values for these fields may be transmitted from the product to the registrar, in an analogous manner to which details of subsequent transfers are transmitted. In this alternative situation, Block 760 uses the transmitted information. As yet another alternative, predetermined values which denote the initialization of the ownership transfer record may be used to initialize one or more of the sub-fields of the last transaction field.
At Block 780, the product creation event is logged to the audit repository. As described above with reference to
According to preferred embodiments, this first GUID becomes the auditable serial number for the product, and in addition to writing the GUID into the ownership transfer record on the RFID chip (as shown at 321 in
While the logic for initialization (
Note that some control over the details of an ownership transfer transaction may, in some cases, be imposed by legal restrictions on the registrar that registers transfers and/or on a registrar (or other entity) that subsequently accesses the registered information during an audit. These restrictions may arise in various ways, such as through the contractual arrangement between the selling party and the chosen registrar, and may require additional protections such as encryption of the transaction data deposited in the audit record. For example, the unit price of a transfer may be an extremely sensitive piece of information to the seller, or a driver's license number or similar identifying information used for authentication of the buyer might be quite sensitive from the buyer's perspective. Preferably, the novel techniques disclosed in several commonly-assigned and co-pending related U.S. Patent applications are leveraged to provide this type of control. These related applications (filed on Oct. 21, 1999), which are referred to herein as “the selective XML encryption patent applications” and are hereby incorporated herein by reference, comprise the following: “Selective Data Encryption Using Style Sheet Processing” (attorney docket RSW919990073US1, Ser. No. 09/422,430; now U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,532); “Selective Data Encryption Using Style Sheet Processing For Decryption By A Client Proxy” (attorney docket RSW919990112US1, Ser. No. 09/422,537; now U.S. Pat. No. 6,961,849), “Selective Data Encryption Using Style Sheet Processing for Decryption by a Group Clerk” (attorney docket RSW919990111US1, Ser. No. 09/422,492; now U.S. Pat. No. 6,978,367); and “Selective Data Encryption Using Style Sheet Processing For Decryption By A Key Recovery Agent” (attorney docket RSW919990113US1, Ser. No. 09/422,431; now U.S. Pat. No. 6,941,459). Techniques disclosed in the selective XML encryption patent applications enable restricting access to portions of a document to one or more “communities” through use of community-specific encryption (where a “community” is a collection of authorized viewers of information, including humans as well as programmatic entities or processes). The selective XML patent applications also disclose techniques for enabling a key recovery agent to decrypt portions of a document on behalf of a community member that is properly authenticated to the key recovery agent. Embodiments of the present invention preferably leverage techniques disclosed in these related applications to represent transaction data in a way that restricts access to contained field data to selective sets of viewers, and also to enable decryption by a key recovery agent (which could be used, for example, to allow access by governmental agencies under legally-required situations).
Several alternative embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to
For individuals conducting private transactions, a third party transfer agent may be used. The transfer agent may provide the service for a small fee, perhaps at a local post office, bank, check-cashing outlet, convenience store, government agency, or notary public. This would be a novel business method. For example, if Ann buys a piece of jewelry from a retailer and later sells it to Barb, Ann and Barb can go to the local transfer agent Charles who has a scanner/writer, and register the sale. This is somewhat similar to registering the transfer of a car title by providing information to the Department of Motor Vehicles (with notable differences as have been described herein, including creation of a product-integral record of transactions, securing the transfer records using digital signatures, and so forth).
The transfer agent functions could be provided in person. This is illustrated in
In a degenerate case, the registrar functions are performed directly by the transfer agent and the registry is storage local to the transfer agent. In this embodiment, the secure data transfers may occur locally rather than over a network.
It should be noted that each registrar may maintain an independent registry (i.e., audit repository) for the transactions it registers. Alternatively, registrars may submit registration data to a central repository. In the latter case, the short ID field of the product serial number within the submitted information may be used to identify the registrar. Or, a separate field within each logged record may be used for this purpose.
Optionally, prior to generating the GUID and digital signature, the transfer agent may validate the digital signature on the ownership data provided at Block 1120 to ensure that it is valid (not shown in
As an alternative to in-person presentation of a product to a transfer agent, the transfer agent function may be provided by a web service by proxy. For example, an online web site specializing in barter and auction transactions (such as the well-known eBay® online auction service) or a financial services provider (such as the well-known PayPal® online payment service) might be a logical place for providing this type of transfer service. (“eBay” and “PayPal” are registered trademarks of eBay Inc. and PayPal, Inc., respectively.) When using a proxy, proof of identity is preferably provided to the online proxy using conventional means. This is illustrated in
As yet another alternative approach to registering an ownership transfer, an item to be sold could be placed into the custody of a third party until a buyer is found. This is represented in
As a further alternative, a transaction transferring ownership according to the present invention could finalized when the item is delivered to the post office or shipper for mailing to the new owner, where the post office or shipper provides the transfer agent service.
Turning now to
Each of the three pieces of information in this prior art RFID tag organization is represented as a triplet 1410 comprising a type 1412, a length 1414, and a value 1416. The type field 1412 indicates to what extent the information stored on the tag may be changed. For instance, the UPC 1402 is stored on the tag in
The length field 1414 denotes how long the information stored in the value field 1416 may be. For instance, in
This type, length, value triplet organization may be used with embodiments of the present invention to dictate which fields in the ownership transfer record 300, 350, etc., are registrar-updateable and which are not. For example, the product serial number field (reference number 321, in the examples in
The discussion of
As has been demonstrated, the present invention provides novel techniques for recording an auditable, non-repudiable and non-forgeable trail of product ownership transfers. A particular ownership transfer transaction may be used as an electronic receipt, and the current owner of a product may be established by consulting the last transaction recorded in its product-integral ownership transfer record.
A number of variations may be made to the embodiments disclosed herein without deviating from the scope of the present invention. Several such variations will now be described, by way of illustration but not of limitation.
While preferred embodiments have been described with reference to using radio-frequency signals, other forms of electromagnetic radiation, including visible and invisible light, could be used as a communications medium. In addition, sound waves (at an ultrasonic frequency, for instance) could also be used as a communications medium.
It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to transfers by way of sale. Barters and other types of exchanges may also be documented and registered with a transfer record of the type described herein, and the price sub-field 335 that appears in the sample format of
The physical embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the use of electronic circuitry. For instance, research is currently being conducted in the area of optical computing components as a speedier alternative to electronic components. The present invention may be used with such technology or with as-yet-undeveloped physical data processing technology.
Physical embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the use of monolithic semiconductor chip technology. Research is being conducted in the area of chipless RFID devices. The present invention may be used with such chipless RFID technology as well as with RFID devices utilizing a semiconductor chip. In addition, the present invention is not limited specifically to RFID devices. Other types of machine-readable identification devices, for example, may be used for storing product-integral ownership information as disclosed herein.
Optionally, embodiments of the present invention may include an ability for specially-authorized users to modify the type and/or length information on an RFID tag. This would allow an entity with sufficient authority, like a privileged registrar, the ability to reset a tag to a prior state, for example (perhaps in response to erroneously registering a transaction or when some other aberrant occurrence happens).
Embodiments of the present invention may be advantageously provided wherein the current ownership of a product is recorded thereupon, but the ownership trail recording previous transfers has been omitted from the product-integral storage.
A set of commonly-owned and co-pending U.S. Patent applications provides several techniques to detect shoplifting at a store exit, using a combination of RFID tags on merchandise, data written to RFID tags at the point of sale, and other identifiers. See the U.S. Patent Applications titled “Using RFID to Detect and/or Prevent Theft and Shoplifting” (attorney docket RSW920030126US1, Ser. No. 10/665,282; now U.S. Pat. No. 7,005,988), “Using Radio Frequency Identification with Customer Loyalty Cards to Detect and/or Prevent Theft and Shoplifting” (attorney docket RSW920030194US1, Ser. No. 10/666,483), “Using Radio Frequency Identification with Transaction-Specific Correlator Values Written on Transaction Receipts to Detect and/or Prevent Theft and Shoplifting” (attorney docket RSW920030195US1, Ser. No. 10/666,703; now U.S. Pat. No. 7,012,528), “Using Radio Frequency Identification with Transaction-Specific Correlator Values to Detect and/or Prevent Theft and Shoplifting” (attorney docket RSW920030196US1, Ser. No. 10/666,287), and “Using Radio Frequency Identification with Transaction Receipts to Detect and/or Prevent Theft and Shoplifting” (attorney docket RSW920030197US1, Ser. No. 10/666,700). In some embodiments, techniques disclosed in these patent applications write data, which may be a correlator containing a transaction ID, date/timestamp, sequence number, customer number, etc., to an RFID tag on merchandise at the point of sale. This is quite distinct from the present invention, which writes a non-repudiable ownership transfer log directly onto the merchandise using a variety of techniques which include, but are not limited to, RFID.
A commonly-assigned and co-pending U.S. Patent Application titled “Electronic Receipt Management” (attorney docket RSW920030124US1, filed Sep. 16, 2003, Ser. No. 10/663,509) replaces a traditional paper receipt with an electronic receipt that is loaded into the purchaser's pervasive computing device, making it easier for a consumer to find the relevant receipt. This patent application, however, does not teach recording ownership transfers in RFID tags as disclosed herein, nor does it teach other techniques of the present invention such as creation of auditable trails of ownership transfers.
Commonly-assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/847,889 (attorney docket RSW920010017US1, filed May 3, 2001; now U.S. Pat. No. 7,076,441), titled “Identification and Tracking of Persons Using RFID-Tagged Items”, discloses techniques for using RFID technology to identify or characterize people, based on the RFID tags present in items being carried by that person at a point in time. Commonly-assigned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/612,251 (attorney docket RSW920030099US1, filed Jul. 2, 2003; now U.S. Pat. No. 6,992,574), titled “Object Matching via RFID”, discloses techniques for using RFID technology to track and match objects, when the RFID tags of these objects have been programmed with data suitable for indicating that the items are in association with one another. Neither of these patent applications teach registering product ownership transactions or recording such information in an RFID tag.
Prior art ownership registration techniques include marking livestock to signify ownership using include brands and tattoos (which are more or less indelible) and/or ear tags (which can be removed and replaced). Ownership of a car or similar vehicle is signified by a number plate on the vehicle, issued by a government motor vehicle agency, that correlates to paper and/or electronic records of the ownership transfer. In addition, the motor vehicle agency typically issues a legal document of title which bears the vehicle's unique serial number and the name of the person currently registered with that agency as being the vehicle owner. These techniques are distinct from the teachings disclosed herein.
Recent-model cars carry their lifetime operational and service history in a non-volatile memory that can be read by a technician performing repairs. These logs do not include ownership transfers.
The disclosed techniques may be used advantageously in methods of doing business, for example by providing ownership transfer agent services. As an example of how this may be provided, a service may be offered that (1) receives transfer information for an ownership transfer, (2) creates a GUID to represent the transfer, (3) registers the transfer, which preferably includes computing a digital signature over the transfer information and its GUID and logging the transfer record, and (4) charges a fee. The fee might be a flat per-transaction fee, or it might be computed based on the price of the transaction. Or, the fee might be assessed using a subscription model whereby sellers pay a fixed fee for a periodic interval.
As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Embodiments of the present invention may be provided using hardware, software, or a combination thereof. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product which is embodied on one or more computer-readable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and so forth) having computer-readable program code or instructions embodied therein.
The present invention has been described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams usable in methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions, which may be stored on one or more computer-readable media, may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create computer-readable program code means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
While several preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, additional embodiments as well as variations and modifications in the disclosed embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims shall be construed to include preferred embodiments and all such variations and modifications as fall within the spirit and scope of the invention.
The present invention is a Divisional of commonly-assigned and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/718,942, filed on Nov. 21, 2003, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10718942 | Nov 2003 | US |
Child | 11685514 | Mar 2007 | US |