GB2511094A

GB2511094A - Ownership Detection Method

Info

Publication number: GB2511094A
Application number: GB1303206.5A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Dave Duke
Original assignee: ACCESS DEFENDER Ltd
Current assignee: ACCESS DEFENDER Ltd
Priority date: 2013-02-22
Filing date: 2013-02-22
Publication date: 2014-08-27
Also published as: GB201303206D0

Abstract

The application relates to a method and system for identifying ownership of a product. The method comprises generating a creator or manufacturer ID (S1) associated with contact details of a creator of the product, generating a unique ownership ID (S2) associated with the product and associating the creator ID with the ownership ID (S3) to designate that the product is created by the creator. A customer ID is then generated and associated with contact details of a customer (S4). When the product is transferred to the customer, the ownership ID is associated with the customer ID to designate that the current owner of the product is the customer. A quick response (QR) code is then generated (S6) incorporating the ownership ID and the contact details of thecustomer and the creator. This QR code can be attached to the product (S7). The QR code is then sent to a mobile device (e.g. by scanning) for the mobile device to extract the ownership ID and the contact details of the creator and the customer so as to identify the creator and the current owner of the product (S8).

Description

Ownership Detection Method

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and system of identifying ownership of a product.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

The management of ownership data defining ownership of a product is important. In many cases the ownership information of the product is not updated or not even known. For example, with the proliferation of digital media and analog/digital conversion technologies, concerns of copyright-dependent organisations, especially within the music and movie industries, have significantly increased.

Generally only the original creator of the media file is known or the original manufacturer information of a product is known but there is scarcity on the information about the current owner of a media file or a physical product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of identifying ownership of a product. The method comprises: generating a creator ID associated with contact details of a creator of the product; generating a unique ownership ID associated with the product; associating the creator ID with the ownership ID to designate that the product is created by the creator; generating a customer ID associated with contact details of a customer; transferring the product to the customer; associating the ownership ID with the customer ID to designate that the current owner of the product is the customer; generating a quick response (OR) code comprising the ownership ID and the contact details of the customer and the creator, and sending the QR code to a mobile device for the mobile device to extract the ownership ID and the contact details of the creator and the customer so as to identify the creator and the current owner of the product.

The method may include using the OR code in a mobile device to extract the ownership ID and the contact details of the creator and the customer so as to identify the creator and the current owner of the product.

Advantageously, the embodiments of the present invention ensure that a product can be easily traded and the owner of product after each trade is identified. The use of the OR code is advantageous because a smart mobile device can read the OR code through a camera of the device and therefore a user does not need to carry a specialised device to scan the OR code. In one example, the ownership identification method is useful when a product is lost or stolen and the product can be identified by someone, for example a police man, by scanning the OR code on the product.

The method may further comprise: entering on a server the ownership ID extracted from the OR code; comparing the contact details of the customer extracted from the OR code with the contact details of the customer provided by the server in response to the entered ownership ID, wherein the contact details of the customer provided by the server is associated with the ownership ID after the product has been transferred to the customer, thereby designating the current owner of the product.

This technique can be generally useful if the mobile device does not, for example, have internet connection to contact the server. However, in this instance, the contact details of the owner are still visible through the OR code without the internet connection. In such a case, the user would be able to enter the ownership ID on the server and then verify the current owner of the product. If the contact details of the current owner are different in the server than that in the OR code, the user would contact the owner using the information on the server.

The step of using the OR code in the mobile device may comprise: printing the OR code for physically attaching on the product; scanning the OR code using the mobile device, and displaying the extracted information from the QR code on the mobile device.

Preferably, the product is a media data file. The method may further comprise incorporating the ownership ID and the contact details of the creator and the customer into the media data file. Preferably, the ownership ID and the contact details of the creator and the customer are incorporated in a meta file of the media data file.

The step of using the OR code may comprise: printing the OR code for physically attaching on a disc carrying the media data file; scanning the OR code using a mobile device and displaying the extracted information from the OR code on the mobile device.

The method may further comprise: generating a further customer ID associated with contact details of a further customer; transferring the product to the further customer from the customer; associating the ownership ID with the further customer ID to designate that the current owner of the product is the further customer; generating a further quick response (OR) code incorporating the ownership ID and the contact details of the further customer and the creator, and using the further OR code in the mobile device to extract the ownership ID and the contact details of the creator and the further customer so as to identify the creator and the current owner of the product.

In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ownership identifying system for a product. The system comprises: a server comprising processor control code to: generate a creator ID associated with contact details of a creator of the product; generate a unique ownership ID associated with the product; associate the creator ID and the ownership ID to designate that the product is created by the creator; generate a customer ID associated with contact details of a customer; transfer the product to the customer; associate the ownership ID with the customer ID to designate that the current owner of the product is the customer, and generate a quick response (OR) code incorporating the ownership ID and the contact details of the customer and the creator; a mobile device configured to use the OR code to extract the ownership ID and the contact details of the customer and the creator, so as to identify the creator and the current owner of the product.

The processor control code may further comprise code to: enter the ownership ID extracted from the OR code; compare the contact details of the customer extracted from the OR code with the contact details of the customer provided by the server in response to the entered ownership ID, wherein the contact details of the customer provided by the server is associated with the ownership ID after the product has been transferred to the customer, thereby designating the current owner of the product.

The processor control code may further comprise code to print the OR code for physically attaching on the product, and the mobile device is configured to scan the OR code attached on the product and display the extracted information from the OR code.

Preferably, the product is a media data file. The processor control code may further comprise code to incorporate the ownership ID and the contact details of the creator and the customer into the media data file. Preferably the ownership ID and the contact details of the creator and the customer are incorporated in a meta file of the media data file.

The processor control code may further comprise code to print the OR code for physically attaching on a disc carrying the media data file, and the mobile device is configured to scan the OR code attached on the compact disc and to display the extracted information from the OR code.

The processor control code may further comprise code to: generate a further customer ID associated with contact details of a further customer; transfer the product to the further customer from the customer; associate the ownership ID with the further customer ID to designate that the current owner of the product is the further customer; generate a further quick response (OR) code incorporating the ownership ID and the contact details of the further customer and the creator; wherein the mobile device is configured to use the further OR code in the mobile device to extract the ownership ID and the contact details of the creator and the further customer so as to identify the creator and the current owner of the product.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other aspects of the invention will now be further described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures in which: Figure 1 illustrates a system for identifying ownership of a product; Figure 2 illustrates a first scenario of an ownership detection process of a physical product; and Figure 3 illustrates a second scenario of an ownership detection process of a media data file.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Figure 1 illustrates a system 100 for tracking ownership of a product. The system 100 includes an application server 101 which includes a processor 103. The processor 103 is connected to a database 105 and to a user interface 107. The processor 103 is capable of generating a unique ownership ID for a particular product. The processor 103 is also capable of generating a manufacturer or creator ID and a customer ID of a particular product. The processor 103 can store them in the database 105. The processor 103 also controls the user interface 107 so that a user can enter information to the application server 101.

The system 100 also includes a mobile device 115 which has a display 117 and a camera 119. The display 117 of the mobile device 115 is capable of displaying ownership information of the product. The camera 119 can scan a bar code, for example, a OR code containing the ownership information. The mobile device 115 runs an application which is associated with the application server 101 such that when the mobile device 115 connects to the application server 101, the application on the mobile device 115 can work with the server 101 to extract information from the database 105.

The system 100 also includes a physical product 110 on which a OR code 112 can be printed. The mobile device 115 can scan the OR code through the camera 119 and display the ownership information on the display 117 of the mobile device 115. It will be appreciated that the physical product can be any tangible product.

Figure 2 illustrates a first scenario of an ownership detection process of a physical product. In particular the figure shows the following steps.

At Si, a manufacturer of a physical product registers with the application server to create an account. The application server generates a manufacturer ID or a creator ID for the manufacturer. The manufacturer provides the details of the products it owns to the application server.

At 52, the application server generates an ownership ID for each product manufactured by the manufacturer. The ownership ID is unique in the world.

At S3, the application server associates each ownership ID with the manufacturer ID.

This association provides the identification of the manufacturer of the product.

At S4, the manufacturer sells the product to a customer. In one example, the customer can already have an account with the application server and therefore the application server already has a customer ID associated with the contact details of the customer, e.g. name, address, a telephone number, a mobile number, etc. At 55, the manufacturer transfers the ownership to the customer through the application server and the customer accepts it. The application server then links the ownership ID of the product to the customer ID.

At S6, the application server generates a quick response (OR) code containing the ownership ID, the manufacturer ID containing the manufacturer contact details and the contact details of the customer.

At S7, the OR code is physically printed and stuck on the associated product.

At 58, anyone can use a mobile device to read the OR code. In one embodiment, the mobile device runs an application which is associated with the application server. The application will extract the information from the OR code and display them, for example, the mobile device will display the ownership ID, the contact details of the customer and the original manufacturer of the product.

At S9, the mobile device may be able to connect to the application server via internet connection and verify that the contact details of the customer extracted from the OR code is the same as the contact details of the current owner listed in the application server. Alternatively, if the mobile device does not have internet connection, the user can optionally log into the application server and enter the ownership ID obtained by scanning the OR code in the application server. The application server will then provide the current owner details of that particular product. In this way, the user of the mobile device would be able to verify whether the current owner displayed by scanning the OR code is the same as the current owner shown on the user interface of the application server. It will be appreciated that the current owner shown on the application server is the current owner of the product. In one example, it may be possible that the product has been sold to a new customer and the server shows the new customer as a current owner, but this is not displayed on the mobile device by scanning the OR code on the product. This is because the OR code on the product is out of date. In such a case, the user would be able to know that the current owner is the owner shown in the server.

However, if the current owner shown both in the server and the mobile device are the same, it would be clear to the user of the mobile device that the product belongs to the customer shown in the mobile device. It would be appreciated that the contact details of the owner are generally visible on the mobile device after scanning the OR code although the mobile device might not have internet connection.

At Si 0, the customer sells the product to a new customer and the steps as described in 54 to 59 will be repeated.

It will be appreciated that it is advantageous to show the contact details of the manufacturer on the mobile device because this way it would be possible to know who manufactured the product and to verify, for example, whether the product is still under warranty.

Figure 2 illustrates a second scenario of an ownership detection process of a media data file such as a music file, a picture file or any other known media file. In particular, the second scenario has the following steps.

At Si, an original creator of a media file registers with the application server to create an account. The application server generates a creator ID for the creator. The creator provides the details of the media file it owns to the application server.

At S2, the application server generates an ownership ID for each media file created by the creator. The ownership ID is unique in the world.

At S3, the application server associates each ownership ID to the creator ID. This association provides the identification of the creator of the media file.

At S4, the creator sells the media file to a customer. The customer can already have an account with the application server and therefore the application server already has a customer ID associated with the details of the customer, e.g. name, address, telephone number, mobile number, etc. At S5, the creator transfers the ownership of the media file to the customer through the application server and the customer accepts it. The application server then links the ownership ID of the media file to the customer ID. Optionally, the ownership ID, the creator ID and the customer ID can be encrypted into a meta file of the media file.

At 56, the application server generates a quick response (OR) code containing the ownership ID, the contact details of the creator and the customer.

At S7, the OR code can be physically printed and stuck on a compact disk (CD) containing the media file. Alternatively, the OR code can be displayed on a computer screen associated with the application server and the OR code can be scanned from the computer screen. It will be appreciated that when the OR code is printed on the compact disc, it may be possible that the OR code contains a unique ownership ID linked with several media files particularly put on that CD. In such a case, the current owner of all the media files on that CD has the same owner.

At S8, anyone can use a mobile device to read the OR code. In one embodiment, the mobile device runs an application which is associated with the application server. The application will extract the information from the OR code and display them, for example, the mobile device will display the ownership ID, the contact details of the customer and the original manufacturer of the media file.

At S9, the mobile device may be able to connect to the application server via internet connection and verify that the contact details of the customer extracted from the OR code is the same as the contact details of the current owner listed in the application server. Alternatively, if the mobile device does not have internet connection, the user can optionally log into the application server and enter the ownership ID obtained by scanning the OR code in the application server. The application server will then provide the current owner details of that particular product. In this way, the user of the mobile device would be able to verify whether the current owner displayed by scanning the OR code is the same as the current owner shown on the user interface of the application server. It will be appreciated that the current owner shown on the application server is the current owner of the media file. In one example, it may be possible that the media file has been sold to a new customer and the server shows the new customer as a current owner, but this is not displayed on the mobile device by scanning the OR code on the compact disc or from the computer screen. This is because the OR code on the compact disc is out of date. In such a case, the user would be able to know that the current owner is the owner shown in the server. However, if the current owner shown both in the server and the mobile device are the same, it would be clear to the user of the mobile device that the media file belongs to the customer shown in the mobile device. It would be appreciated that the contact details of the owner are generally visible on the mobile device after scanning the OR code although the mobile device might not have internet connection.

At Si 0, the customer sells the media file to a new customer and the steps as described in S4 to S9 will be repeated.

It will be appreciated that the term mobile device" can include a device such as a cellular phone or other wireless communication device.

Although the invention has been described in terms of preferred embodiments as set forth above, it should be understood that these embodiments are illustrative only and that the claims are not limited to those embodiments. Those skilled in the art will be able to make modifications and alternatives in view of the disclosure which are contemplated as falling within the scope of the appended claims. Each feature disclosed or illustrated in the present specification may be incorporated in the invention, whether alone or in any appropriate combination with any other feature disclosed or illustrated herein.