Patent 8219827 was granted and assigned to Panasonic on July, 2012 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method manages optional trusted components that are active within a device, such that the device itself controls the availability of trusted components. The device includes: a storing unit storing a plurality of pieces of software and a plurality of certificates; a receiving unit receiving the certificates; and a selecting unit selecting one of the certificates. The device further includes an executing unit verifying an enabled one of the plurality of pieces of software using the selected and updated one of the certificates.