Patent 7298864 was granted and assigned to Digimarc on November, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An electronic e-mail system where messages contain information carried by digital watermarks. The digital watermarks are used to control the transmission and/or receipt of documents transmitted over system. The invention can be used to prevent the accidental dissemination of information to unauthorized receivers. Furthermore, while no security system is fool-proof, the present invention helps guards against the intentional, but unauthorized, dissemination of confidential information to unauthorized receivers.