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A system and method for providing an intellectual property marketplace (IM) using a secured information vault so that individual owners of intellectual property (IP) may control and manage the access and dissemination of the IP. Producers of the IP may also receive compensation for transactions in t

A system and method for providing an intellectual property marketplace (IM) using a secured information vault so that individual owners of intellectual property (IP) may control and manage the access and dissemination of the IP. Producers of the IP may also receive compensation for transactions in the marketplace. Multiple services for adding IP such as books, movies, video, papers, research, music, inventions, or the like, to the IM include controlling authorized access to the IP and generation of advertising based on types of IP in order to solicit potential consumers. Transactions may be securely transacted using public keying infrastructure (PKI). Consumers subscribing to the IM may also be automatically notified when IP is added to the IM based on predetermined preferences established by the consumer.

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What is claimed is: 1. A secure information marketplace system, comprising: data storage which securely stores intellectual property (IP), associated with an account holder; a deposit system which securely deposits the IP into the data storage; an access system which accesses the IP stored in the d

What is claimed is: 1. A secure information marketplace system, comprising: data storage which securely stores intellectual property (IP), associated with an account holder; a deposit system which securely deposits the IP into the data storage; an access system which accesses the IP stored in the data storage; an IP withdrawal system which retrieves the IP stored in the data storage; and an advertising system for generating interest in the IP in the data storage, wherein the advertising system includes a classified advertising system, a fixed advertising system, a banner advertising system, and a preferred advertising system based on popularity statistics, wherein the classified advertising system organizes ads based on categories, the fixed advertising shows advertisements tuned to a user preference; the banner advertising system is a rotating banner advertisement system for displaying ads for IP producers; and the preferred advertising system periodically updates content of an advertised advertisement based on popularity of the IP in the ad. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage, the deposit system, the access system, and the IP withdrawal system are services of an information vault and each service is accessible via a network. 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the deposit system, the access system and the IP withdrawal system include a dual key security mechanism to authenticate a transaction. 4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a charging system for charging a user a fee for at least any one of a deposit of the IP into the data storage, a withdrawal of the IP from the data storage, a transaction, subscribing to a service, and an access to the IP in the data storage. 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage stores the IP associated with the account holder including at least any one of a music item, a video item, a movie, a book, a research paper, an article, a composition, an invention, software, an information item, and a photograph. 6. The system of claim 1, further comprising an advertising system for generating interest in the IP in the data storage. 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the advertising system includes at least any one of a classified advertising system, a fixed advertising system, a banner advertising system and a preferred advertising system based on popularity statistics. 8. The system of claim 7, wherein: the classified advertising system organizes ads based on categories and the fixed advertising shows advertisements tuned to a user preference; the banner advertising system is a rotating banner advertisement system for displaying ads for IP producers; and the preferred advertising system periodically updates content of an advertised advertisement based on popularity of the IP in the ad. 9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a secure transaction system that recognizes a first party and a second party, the first party being the account holder and the second party being another user given access to the IP by the first party. 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the secure transaction system provides for the second party to access the IP and controls the functions that the second party may perform with the IP. 11. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the deposit system, the access system and IP withdrawal system authenticates one or more users involved in a transaction. 12. The system of claim 1, wherein the deposit system stores preferences of the account holder and stores specified characteristics associated with the IP. 13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a registration system for registering a user to access an information vault and authenticates the user and stores preferences of the user relating to IP of interest to the user. 14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a mechanism for creating metadata to link with the IP, wherein at least any one of the mechanism: (i) prompts the account holder with questions to create the metadata, and (ii) presents metadata to the user from a stored template to create the metadata. 15. The system of claim 1, further comprising: a subscription system to register a user to a service for monitoring the IP being added to an information vault based on one or more preferences of the user; and a notification system for notifying the user when the service detects an added IP matching the one or more preferences of the user. 16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a crawler system for crawling an information vault's indices to locate metadata similar to metadata associated with the IP of the account holder and for reporting the similar metadata to the account holder wherein the similar metadata has at least one value or phrase in common. 17. An information marketplace system comprising: a physical database for data storage; and at least one component comprising a combination of computer program code and hardware, the at least one component structured and arranged to: create an account in an information vault; securely deposit IP in the information vault and to associate the IP with the account; access the IP in the information vault; and advertise the IP to potential consumers of the IP, wherein the advertising includes a classified advertising system, a fixed advertising system, a banner advertising system, and a preferred advertising system based on popularity statistics, the classified advertising system organizes ads based on categories, the fixed advertising shows advertisements tuned to a user preference, the banner advertising system is a rotating banner advertisement system for displaying ads for IP producers, and the preferred advertising system periodically updates content of an advertised advertisement based on popularity of the IP in the ad. 18. The system of claim 17, comprising the at least one component to authenticate one or more parties during a transaction performed by the information vault to permit access to the information vault. 19. The system of claim 17, comprising the at least one component to: charge for transactional activity involving the IP; subscribe to a service for monitoring types of IP being added to the information vault based on preferences of a subscriber; and notify the subscriber when added IP to the information vault matches the preferences. 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the preferences include at least one of an IP producer identifier, a genre type identifier and an IP type. 21. The system of claim 17, further comprising a metadata structure having a key/value pair having one or more linkages including a list of one or more pointers to the IP. 22. The system of claim 17, further comprising a crawler system for searching one or more indices to the IP in the information vault to discover similar IP metadata associated with the indices, similar IP metadata having at least one common value or phrase and wherein the crawler system marks similar discovered IP metadata so that a user may associate at least one similar discovered metadata with at least one IP item based on the marked IP metadata. 23. A computer-implemented method of providing an IP repository, comprising the steps of: providing a system structured and arranged to allow a user to access an information vault to perform a transaction involving an item of IP stored in the information vault; authenticating an identity of a user accessing the item of IP; presenting to the user options to search all IP or a specific type of IP stored in the information vault; receiving a search query from the user; wherein the system generates a results set of IP based upon the search query and metadata, wherein the result set is ordered such that IP items having multiple hits are placed relatively higher in the result set, and IP items that have been viewed and sold more times than others are also placed relatively higher in the result set; presenting the result set to the user; and executing the transaction when the identity of the user is authenticated. 24. The method of claim 23, wherein the item of IP includes at least any one of a music item, a video item, a movie, a book, a research paper, an article, a composition, software, an invention, an information item, and a photograph. 25. The method of claim 23, further comprising the steps of: creating a digital certificate for an applicant who owns or controls the item of IP; accessing the information vault to create an account associated with the applicant and presenting the digital certificate as identity of the applicant; and depositing the item of IP into the account. 26. The method of claim 23, wherein the authenticating step authenticates the identity of the user employing a trusted third party authenticator. 27. The method of claim 23, wherein the accessing step includes at least any one of depositing the item of IP, reading the item of IP, removing the item of IP, deleting an account, selecting advertising for the item of IP and viewing the item of IP. 28. The method of claim 23, further comprising the steps of: subscribing to a service to monitor the information vault for an added item of IP which satisfies a preference associated with the user; and notifying the user when the added item of IP satisfies the preference. 29. The method of claim 23, further comprising the steps of advertising the item of IP. 30. The method of claim 29, wherein the advertising includes one of a banner ad, a fixed ad, a classified ad, and a preferred ad based on popularity statistics and wherein the classified ad organizes ads based on categories and the banner ad is a rotating banner for displaying IP producers and wherein the fixed ad is tuned to a user preference and the contents of the preferred ad is periodically updated based on popularity of IP in the ad. 31. A computer-implemented method of charging for information comprising: providing a system structured and arranged to authenticate an owner depositing IP in a secure information marketplace; depositing IP by the owner into the secure information marketplace; wherein the system advertises the IP to attract a customer; transacting a sale of the IP with the customer, wherein the customer is authenticated; providing the IP to the customer; and charging the customer a fee for the IP, wherein the advertising comprises: maintaining consumption statistics that track, on a per IP item basis, a frequency rate of viewed IP and sold IP; providing a list or N most popular IP items to the customer, where N is an integer; and dynamically maintaining the list by adding, removing, or changing an order of IP items on the list based upon the consumption statistics. 32. The method of claim 31, wherein the IP is encrypted using a public key of the secure information marketplace. 33. The method of claim 31, further comprising the steps of: applying for an information marketplace account by the customer; and storing IP preferences of the customer in the account. 34. The method of claim 31, further comprising the steps of: defining a type of IP to facilitate advertising and searching of the IP; specifying a type of advertisement for advertising the IP; creating metadata based on attributes of the IP to facilitate searching; and storing the metadata in the secure information marketplace and associating the metadata with the IP. 35. The method of claim 31, further comprising subscribing to a service for notifying a subscriber of the service when additional IP is added to the secure information marketplace based on one or more preferences established by the subscriber, wherein the subscriber is the customer. 36. The method of claim 35, further comprising canceling a subscription to the service. 37. A computer program product comprising a storage medium having readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer program product includes at least one component to: access an information vault to perform a transaction involving an item of IP stored in the information vault; authenticate an identity of an entity performing the accessing; present to the user options to search all IP or a specific type of IP stored in the information vault; receive a search query from the user; generate a results set of IP based upon the search query and metadata, wherein the result set is ordered such that IP items having multiple hits are placed relatively higher in the result set, and IP items that have been viewed and sold more times than others are also placed relatively higher in the result set; present the result set to the user; and execute the transaction when the identity of the entity is authenticated, wherein the computer program product is implemented with a system structured and arranged to execute the transaction. 38. The computer program product of claim 37, wherein the computer program product further includes at least one component to permit a user viewing the result set to select a selected IP and begin a process of purchasing the selected IP.