IP Library Granted Patent US 12,657,263
Granted Patent B2
US 12,657,263 · App. 18/933,293 · Granted Jun 16, 2026

Systems and methods for federated searches of assets in disparate DAM repositories

Inventors: Beth Jackson (Silver Spring, MD); William C. Hurst (Silver Spring, MD); Chris Goodacre (Silver Spring, MD); Melissa Roberts (Silver Spring, MD); Lisa Seeto (Silver Spring, MD); Pedro Lopez (Silver Spring, MD); Jarrod Clift (Silver Spring, MD); Brant Boehmann (Silver Spring, MD); Dennis Killingsworth (Silver Spring, MD)
Assignee: Discovery Communications, LLC
G06F21/10G06F16/9024G06Q50/184G06F21/1015
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,657,263
App. No.
18/933,293
Granted
Jun 16, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

A central asset registry and associated satellite registries tie Digital Asset Management (DAM) repositories and satellite repositories into a unified enterprise system. The system removes rights and asset relationship tracking from the DAMs and the satellites by gathering asset metadata tags and capturing digital asset rights and relationships between assets to improve speed, scalability, and flexibility in analyzing and traversing networks of rights and relationships of digital assets. The central asset registry and the satellite registries use a pluggable architecture and track and store multi-dimensional relationships as an asset hierarchy. The asset hierarchy and rights model depicts rights and relationship data between the assets and provides a flexible array of asset types and properties for addition of new assets, new asset types, and new rights without re-factoring the other data, nodes, and edges. The system uses asset metadata to create edge relationships between the assets. The combination of the satellite registries and the central asset registry facilitates queries and retrieval of the media assets.

Claims (46)

1 . A method for managing updates to digital assets, the method comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors, a change event indicating that a local digital asset should be designated as an enterprise digital asset;

in response to receiving the change event, retrieving, by one or more processors, searchable information of the local digital asset from one or more repositories;

identifying, by the one or more processors, one or more related enterprise digital assets associated with the local digital asset from a relationship registry, wherein the relationship registry comprises one or more relationship attributes of one or more digital assets;

updating, by the one or more processors, the searchable information of the local digital asset with the one or more related enterprise digital assets; and

storing, by the one or more processors, the local digital asset in a central registry, wherein the storing the local digital asset designates the local digital asset as an enterprise digital asset.

2 . The method for managing updates to digital assets of claim 1 , further comprising:

obtaining, by the one or more processors, a global identifier for the stored enterprise digital asset; and

recording, by the one or more processors, the global identifier for the stored enterprise digital asset in one or more satellite registries.

3 . The method for managing updates to digital assets of claim 1 , wherein the local digital asset and the one or more related enterprise digital assets contain media content.

4 . The method for managing updates to digital assets of claim 1 , wherein the one or more relationship attributes include a title, a geographical origin, a list of people participating in media content of the enterprise digital asset, a list of creators, one or more technical characterization for the media content of the local digital asset and/or enterprise digital asset, and/or metadata associated with creating the local digital asset and/or enterprise digital asset in a digital asset management repository.

5 . The method for managing updates to digital assets of claim 1 , wherein the one or more relationship attributes of the one or more digital assets are stored across one or more relationship registries of digital asset management repositories and one or more satellite digital asset management repositories.

6 . The method for managing updates to digital assets of claim 1 , wherein the identifying further comprises:

identifying, by the one or more processors, a relationship type between each of the one or more related enterprise digital assets and the local digital asset and identifying information for each of the one or more related enterprise digital assets.

7 . The method for managing updates to digital assets of claim 6 , wherein the relationship type includes at least one of an instance relationship, a partial relationship, a variant relationship, and/or a concrete relationship.

8 . A system for managing updates to digital assets, comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium having program instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform operations comprising:

receiving a change event indicating that a local digital asset should be designated as an enterprise digital asset;

in response to receiving the change event, retrieving searchable information of the local digital asset from one or more repositories;

identifying one or more related enterprise digital assets associated with the local digital asset from a relationship registry, wherein the relationship registry comprises one or more relationship attributes of one or more digital assets;

updating the searchable information of the local digital asset with the one or more related enterprise digital assets; and

storing the local digital asset in a central registry, wherein the storing the local digital asset designates the local digital asset as an enterprise digital asset.

9 . The system for managing updates to digital assets of claim 8 , further comprising:

obtaining a global identifier for the stored enterprise digital asset; and

recording the global identifier for the stored enterprise digital asset in one or more satellite registries.

10 . The system for managing updates to digital assets of claim 8 , wherein the local digital asset and the one or more related enterprise digital assets contain media content.

11 . The system for managing updates to digital assets of claim 8 , wherein the one or more relationship attributes include a title, a geographical origin, a list of people participating in media content of the enterprise digital asset, a list of creators, one or more technical characterization for the media content of the local digital asset and/or enterprise digital asset, and/or metadata associated with creating the local digital asset and/or enterprise digital asset in a digital asset management repository.

12 . The system for managing updates to digital assets of claim 8 , wherein the one or more relationship attributes of the one or more digital assets are stored across one or more relationship registries of digital asset management repositories and one or more satellite digital asset management repositories.

13 . The system for managing updates to digital assets of claim 8 , wherein the identifying further comprises:

identifying a relationship type between each of the one or more related enterprise digital assets and the local digital asset and identifying information for each of the one or more related enterprise digital assets.

14 . The system for managing updates to digital assets of claim 13 , wherein the relationship type includes at least one of an instance relationship, a partial relationship, a variant relationship, and/or a concrete relationship.

15 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium configured to store processor-readable instructions for managing updates to digital assets, wherein when executed by one or more processors, the instructions perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the one or more processors, a change event indicating that a local digital asset should be designated as an enterprise digital asset;

in response to receiving the change event, retrieving, by one or more processors, searchable information of the local digital asset from one or more repositories;

identifying, by the one or more processors, one or more related enterprise digital assets associated with the local digital asset from a relationship registry, wherein the relationship registry comprises one or more relationship attributes of one or more digital assets;

updating, by the one or more processors, the searchable information of the local digital asset with the one or more related enterprise digital assets; and

storing, by the one or more processors, the local digital asset in a central registry, wherein the storing the local digital asset designates the local digital asset as an enterprise digital asset.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium for managing updates to digital assets of claim 15 , further comprising:

obtaining, by the one or more processors, a global identifier for the stored enterprise digital asset; and

recording, by the one or more processors, the global identifier for the stored enterprise digital asset in one or more satellite registries.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium for managing updates to digital assets of claim 15 , wherein the one or more relationship attributes include a title, a geographical origin, a list of people participating in media content of the enterprise digital asset, a list of creators, one or more technical characterization for the media content of the local digital asset and/or enterprise digital asset, and/or metadata associated with creating the local digital asset and/or enterprise digital asset in a digital asset management repository.

18 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium for managing updates to digital assets of claim 15 , wherein the one or more relationship attributes of the one or more digital assets are stored across one or more relationship registries of digital asset management repositories and one or more satellite digital asset management repositories.

19 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium for managing updates to digital assets of claim 15 , wherein the identifying further comprises:

identifying a relationship type between each of the one or more related enterprise digital assets and the local digital asset and identifying information for each of the one or more related enterprise digital assets.

20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium for managing updates to digital assets of claim 19 , wherein the relationship type includes at least one of an instance relationship, a partial relationship, a variant relationship, and/or a concrete relationship.

Assignments (2)
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Oct 1, 2025
From: WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY, INC.; WARNER MEDIA, LLC; TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INC.; HOME BOX OFFICE, INC.; DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS, LLC; WARNERMEDIA DIRECT LLC; DISCOVERY.COM LLC; WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.; CNN INTERACTIVE GROUP, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 072995/0858 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 1, 2024
From: JACKSON, BETH; HURST, CHUCK; GOODACRE, CHRIS; ROBERTS, MELISSA; SEETO, LISA; LOPEZ, PEDRO; CLIFT, JARROD; BOEHMANN, BRANT; KILLINGSWORTH, DENNIS
To: DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
Reel/Frame 069101/0926 →