US Patent 11689782 Content distribution pipeline watermarking

Methods, computer-readable media, and devices for tracking an accessing of a media content via a watermark embedded by a network node are disclosed. For example, a processing system including at least one processor may receive, from a first network node, a first copy of a watermark that is embedded by the first network node in a media content. The processing system may further receive a notification comprising a second copy of the watermark and an identification of a first endpoint device, the notification associated with an accessing of the media content by the first endpoint device, and record the accessing of the media content by the first endpoint device.