US6086706A — Document copying deterrent method

Claim 1

Independent Claim 170 words

A method of deterring illicit copying of electronically published documents, which comprises: (a) utilizing a computer system to electronically publish a plurality of copies of a document having electronically created material thereon for distribution to a plurality of subscribers; (b) operating programming within said computer system so as to perform the following steps: (i) encoding said plurality of copies each with a separate, unique identification code, said identification code being based on a unique arrangement of the electronically created material on each such copy based on line-shift coding, wherein said line-shift coding includes altering a bitmap image of the document to shift locations of at least one line of text relative to other lines of text contained in the document to uniquely encode each copy of the document; and (ii) creating a codebook of a plurality of identification codes to correlate each such identification code to a particular subscriber, whereby illicit copies of a document can be traced to the particular subscriber associated with the identification code within the document.

Claim 2

Independent Claim 170 words

A method of deterring illicit copying of electronically published documents, which comprises: (a) utilizing a computer system to electronically publish a plurality of copies of a document having electronically created material thereon for distribution to a plurality of subscribers; (b) operating programming within said computer system so as to perform the following steps: (i) encoding said plurality of copies each with a separate, unique identification code, said identification code being based on a unique arrangement of the electronically created material on each such copy based on line-shift coding, wherein said line-shift coding includes altering a bitmap image of the document to shift locations of at least one line of text relative to other lines of text contained in the document to uniquely encode each copy of the document; and (ii) creating a codebook of a plurality of identification codes to correlate each such identification code to a particular subscriber, whereby illicit copies of a document can be traced to the particular subscriber associated with the identification code within the document.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 115 words

The method of claim 1, wherein operating said programming also includes performing the steps of: (iii) creating a first copy of said document as a standard document; (iv) creating a plurality of subsequent copies, each with at least one alteration rendering it different from said standard document, and each being different from one another so that each of said copies has a unique identification code based on said at least one alteration; (v) comparing each subsequent copy with said standard document to identify a sequence of same and different aspects of each such copy relative to said standard document; and, (vi) converting said sequence of same and different aspects to a unique binary identification code.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 82 words

The method of claim 1, wherein said computer system includes a scanner device connected thereto and operating said programming includes performing the steps of: (1) scanning a copy of a document to feed its image into said computer system; (2) analyzing each line of said document for line-shift alterations and decoding the image to determine said images unique identification code; and, (3) comparing said images unique identification code to the codebook to determine the particular subscriber to which the identification code correlates.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 76 words

The method of claim 1 wherein operating said programming includes performing the steps of: (1) receiving a bitmap image for a copy of a previously electronically published document via an electronic inputting device; (2) analyzing the bitmap image to determine its unique identification code; and, (3) comparing the resulting identification code analyzed from the bitmap image to the plurality of identification codes in the codebook to determine the particular subscriber to which the identification code correlates.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 62 words

The method of claim 1, wherein operating said programming includes performing the steps of: (1) receiving a document format file for a copy of a previously electronically published document; (2) analyzing the document format file to determine its unique identification code; and, (3) comparing the resulting identification code to the codebook to determine the particular subscriber to which the identification code correlates.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 22 words

The method of claim 3 wherein operating said programming also includes the step of noise reduction comprising salt-and-pepper, deskewing and text-line location.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 31 words

The method of claim 3 wherein said analyzing and decoding is based on baseline differential determinations to determine distances between adjacent baselines as to whether a text line has been shifted.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 16 words

The method of claim 3 wherein said analyzing and decoding is based on centroid differential determinations.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 22 words

The method of claim 5 wherein said copy of a document is from a document which has been encoded by line-shift alteration.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 16 words

The method of claim 9 wherein operating said programming also includes the step of noise reduction.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 16 words

The method of claim 9 wherein said analyzing and decoding is based on baseline differential determinations.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 16 words

The method of claim 9 wherein said analyzing and decoding is based on centroid differential determinations.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 22 words

The method of claim 5 wherein said copy of a document is from a document which has been encoded by word-shift alteration.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 23 words

The method of claim 5 wherein said copy of a document is from a document which has been encoded by feature enhancement alteration.

Claim 16

Independent Claim 174 words

A method of deterring the illicit copying of electronically published documents, which comprises: (a) utilizing a computer system to electronically publish a plurality of copies of a document having electronically created material including words arranged in a predetermined sequence thereon for distribution to a plurality of subscribers; (b) operating programming within said computer system so as to perform the following steps: (i) encoding said plurality of copies each with a separate, unique identification code, said identification code being based on a unique arrangement of the electronically created material on each such copy based on word-shift coding, wherein said word-shift coding includes altering a bitmap image of the document to shift locations of at least one word relative to other words contained in the document to uniquely encode each copy of the document; and, (ii) creating a codebook of a plurality of identification codes to correlate each such identification code to a particular subscriber whereby illicit copies of a document can be traced to the particular subscriber associated with the identification code within the document.

Claim 17

Independent Claim 174 words

A method of deterring the illicit copying of electronically published documents, which comprises: (a) utilizing a computer system to electronically publish a plurality of copies of a document having electronically created material including words arranged in a predetermined sequence thereon for distribution to a plurality of subscribers; (b) operating programming within said computer system so as to perform the following steps: (i) encoding said plurality of copies each with a separate, unique identification code, said identification code being based on a unique arrangement of the electronically created material on each such copy based on word-shift coding, wherein said word-shift coding includes altering a bitmap image of the document to shift locations of at least one word relative to other words contained in the document to uniquely encode each copy of the document; and, (ii) creating a codebook of a plurality of identification codes to correlate each such identification code to a particular subscriber whereby illicit copies of a document can be traced to the particular subscriber associated with the identification code within the document.

Claim 18

Independent Claim 160 words

A method of deterring the illicit copying of electronically published documents, which comprises: (a) utilizing a computer system to electronically publish a plurality of copies of a document having electronically created material including standardized print features thereon for distribution to a plurality of subscribers; (b) operating programming within said computer system so as to perform the following steps: (i) encoding said plurality of copies each with a separate, unique identification code, said identification code being based on a unique arrangement of the electronically created material on each such copy based on feature-altered coding, wherein said feature-altered coding includes altering a bitmap image of the document to alter at least one print feature relative to said standardized print features; and, (ii) creating a codebook of a plurality of identification codes to correlate each such identification code to a particular subscriber whereby illicit copies of a document can be traced to the particular subscriber associated with the identification code within the document.

Claim 19

Independent Claim 160 words

A method of deterring the illicit copying of electronically published documents, which comprises: (a) utilizing a computer system to electronically publish a plurality of copies of a document having electronically created material including standardized print features thereon for distribution to a plurality of subscribers; (b) operating programming within said computer system so as to perform the following steps: (i) encoding said plurality of copies each with a separate, unique identification code, said identification code being based on a unique arrangement of the electronically created material on each such copy based on feature-altered coding, wherein said feature-altered coding includes altering a bitmap image of the document to alter at least one print feature relative to said standardized print features; and, (ii) creating a codebook of a plurality of identification codes to correlate each such identification code to a particular subscriber whereby illicit copies of a document can be traced to the particular subscriber associated with the identification code within the document.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 115 words

The method of claim 15, wherein operating said programming also includes performing the steps of: (iii) creating a first copy of said document as a standard document; (iv) creating a plurality of subsequent copies, each with at least one alteration rendering it different from said standard document, and each being different from one another so that each of said copies has a unique identification code based on said at least one alteration; (v) comparing each subsequent copy with said standard document to identify a sequence of same and different aspects of each such copy relative to said standard document; and, (vi) converting said sequence of same and different aspects to a unique binary identification code.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 115 words

The method of claim 16, wherein operating said programming also includes performing the steps of: (iii) creating a first copy of said document as a standard document; (iv) creating a plurality of subsequent copies, each with at least one alteration rendering it different from said standard document, and each being different from one another so that each of said copies has a unique identification code based on said at least one alteration; (v) comparing each subsequent copy with said standard document to identify a sequence of same and different aspects of each such copy relative to said standard document; and, (vi) converting said sequence of same and different aspects to a unique binary identification code.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 82 words

The method of claim 15, wherein said computer system includes a scanner device connected thereto and operating said programming includes performing the steps of: (1) scanning a copy of a document to feed its image into said computer system; (2) analyzing each line of said document for word-shift alterations and decoding the image to determine said images unique identification code; and, (3) comparing said images unique identification code to the codebook to determine the particular subscriber to which the identification code correlates.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 82 words

The method of claim 16, wherein said computer system includes a scanner device connected thereto and operating said programming includes performing the steps of: (1) scanning a copy of a document to feed its image into said computer system; (2) analyzing each line of said document for feature-altered coding and decoding the image to determine said images unique identification code; and, (3) comparing said images unique identification code to the codebook to determine the particular subscriber to which the identification code correlates.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 76 words

The method of claim 15 wherein operating said programming includes performing the steps of: (1) receiving a bitmap image for a copy of a previously electronically published document via an electronic inputting device; (2) analyzing the bitmap image to determine its unique identification code; and (3) comparing the resulting identification code analyzed from the bitmap image to the plurality of identification codes in the codebook to determine the particular subscriber to which the identification code correlates.

Claim 25

Dependent Claim 76 words

The method of claim 16 wherein operating said programming includes performing the steps of: (1) receiving a bitmap image for a copy of a previously electronically published document via an electronic inputting device; (2) analyzing the bitmap image to determine its unique identification code; and (3) comparing the resulting identification code analyzed from the bitmap image to the plurality of identification codes in the codebook to determine the particular subscriber to which the identification code correlates.

Claim 26

Dependent Claim 22 words

The method of claim 4 wherein operating said programming also includes the step of noise reduction comprising salt-and-pepper, deskewing and text-line location.

Claim 27

Dependent Claim 32 words

The method of claim 4 wherein said analyzing and decoding is based on baseline differential determinations to determine the distance between adjacent baselines as to whether a text line has been shifted.

Claim 28

Dependent Claim 16 words

The method of claim 4 wherein said analyzing and decoding is based on centroid differential determinations.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2003-07-11	2004-01-10	2004-07-11	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2007-07-11	2008-01-10	2008-07-11	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2011-07-11	2012-01-10	2012-07-11	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Document copying deterrent method

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