Digital composition hashing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11356268-B2
Application number	US-201716613821-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 2, 2017
Priority date	Jun 2, 2017
Publication date	Jun 7, 2022
Grant date	Jun 7, 2022

Abstract

Examples associated with digital composition hashing are described. One example method includes receiving a digital composition file from a user. The digital composition file may include a top-level design and a hierarchy of sub-level designs. A hashed structure may be generated from the digital composition file, where a node in the hashed structure for the first sub-level design is generated based on hashes of sub-level designs below the first sub-level design in the hierarchy. The hashed structure and a hash of the digital composition file are stored in association with the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method by a computer system, the method comprising:
by a processor coupled to a memory to execute a process including,
receiving a digital composition file from a user, where the digital composition file comprises a design of elements in form of a top-level design and a hierarchy of sub-level designs;
generating a hashed structure from the digital composition file where a node in the hashed structure for a first sub-level design, among the sub-level designs, is generated based on hashes of second sub-level designs below the first sub-level design in the hierarchy of the sub-level designs; and
storing the hashed structure and a hash of the digital composition file in association with the user; and
authenticating an authorship involving the design, in response to an authentication signal to authenticate at least one design element, among the design elements, of the digital composition file,
wherein the authentication signal includes a hash of a sub-level design revealed among the sub-level designs, and a path from a leaf node in the hashed structure containing the revealed sub-level design to a root of the hashed structure, where the hash of the sub-level design allows the user to authenticate authorship of the revealed sub-level design without revealing other design elements in the digital composition file external to the revealed sub-level design.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising generating a secure time stamp from a root of the hashed structure and where the secure time stamp is stored in a database with the hashed structure and the hash of the digital composition file.

3. The method of claim 2 , comprising providing the user the authentication signal, the authentication signal comprising the secure time stamp and at least one hash, among hashes, of:
a hash of the digital composition file, or
the hash of the revealed sub-level design and the path from the leaf node in the hashed structure containing the revealed sub-level design to the root of the hashed structure, where the hash of the sub-level design allows the user to authenticate a date of authorship of the revealed sub-level design based on the secure time-stamp without revealing other design elements of the digital composition file external to the revealed sub-level design.

4. The method of claim 1 , where the hashed structure and the hash of the digital composition file are stored using a blockchain.

5. The method of claim 1 , where at least one sub-level design, among the sub-level designs, of the digital composition file is received in an encrypted state and where the method comprises decrypting the at least one sub-level design to facilitate generating the hashed structure.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising encrypting the sub-level designs, and where the hashed structure is generated based at least in part on the encrypted versions of the sub-level designs.

7. The method of claim 6 , comprising generating encryption keys for encrypting the sub-level designs, and storing the encryption keys to facilitate recovery of the sub-level designs.

8. The method of claim 1 , where the sub-level designs are described by metadata, respectively, and where the metadata is incorporated into the hashed structure.

9. The method of claim 8 , where the metadata includes private metadata and public metadata, and where the private data is incorporated into the hashed structure in an encrypted state.

10. The method of claim 1 , comprising watermarking at least one design element, among the design elements, of a top-level design, a sub-level design, and the digital composition file.

11. The method of claim 1 , comprising providing a confirmation signal indicating the authenticated authorship of the design to the user, where the confirmation signal is based on the hash of the digital composition file.

12. A system, comprising:
a memory to store instructions; and
a processor coupled to the memory to execute the instructions to,
allow a user to identify a set of design elements from a design file for protection;
generate, from the set of design elements and the design file, a digital composition file comprising a top-level design and a hierarchy of sub-level designs;
deliver the digital composition file to a design authentication service; and
perform a verification that a signature obtained from a validation signal received from the design authentication service matches a signature of the digital composition file,
where,
the design authentication service stores the signature of the digital composition file and a hashed structure generated from the digital composition file in association with the user, and
the validation signal includes a hash of a sub-level design revealed among the sub-level designs, and a path from a leaf node in the hashed structure containing the revealed sub-level design to a root of the hashed structure, where the hash of the sub-level design allows the user to perform the verification of the revealed sub-level design without revealing other design elements in the digital composition file external to the revealed sub-level design.

13. The system of claim 12 , the processor is further to encrypt a sub-level design among the sub-level designs.

14. A system, comprising:
a memory to store instructions; and
a processor to couple to the memory to execute the instructions to,
receive a digital composition file from a user, and to verify consistency and completeness of the digital composition file, where the digital composition file comprises a top-level design, and a hierarchy of sub-level designs;
perform a hashing to generate a hashed structure from the digital composition file based on the hierarchy of sub-level designs;
store in a blockchain, a root of the hashed structure and a hash of the digital composition file in association with the user; and
provide the user the hash of the digital composition file and evidence the hashed structure was stored in the blockchain,
wherein
provide an authentication signal including a hash of a sub-level design revealed among the sub-level designs, and a path from a leaf node in the hashed structure containing the revealed sub-level design to a root of the hashed structure, where the hash of the sub-level design allows a user to authenticate authorship of the revealed sub-level design without revealing other design elements in the digital composition file external to the revealed sub-level design.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the processor is to perform an encryption to generate an encrypted sub-level design from a sub-level design, among the sub-level designs, where the hashing uses the encrypted sub-level design in place of the sub-level design when generating the hashed structure, where the encryption ensures at least one of reproducibility of the encrypted sub-level design, and decryptability of the sub-level design.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Development Co

Inventors

• Balinsky Helen
• White Scott
• Taylor Robert
• Baldwin Adrian
• Griffin Jonathan

Classifications

• H04L9/50

  using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees · CPC title

• H04L9/3236 Primary

  using cryptographic hash functions · CPC title

• G06F21/64

  Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures · CPC title

• G06K15/4095 Primary

  Secure printing (computer driven secure printing G06F3/1238) · CPC title

• H04L9/3297

  involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps · CPC title