Daon expands AI agent governance patent portfolio

Daon has patented a system that combines human identity, agent behavior, and runtime context before granting an autonomous AI agent permission to call a tool or an API.

U.S. Patent No. 12,688,261 describes the authorization process that checks whether the agent is still linked to the intended person, if the agent is behaving as expected, and the context of the request, including the tool, action, resource, scope, session, and execution environment.

If the authorization request meets the required conditions, the system generates a machine-verifiable “delegation artifact” that defines the permitted action, scope, and validity period.

The machine-verifiable entity could be a token, a credential, a signed assertion, or a cryptographically protected authorization object.

The permission can be configured for the type of task. In a financial workflow, it could limit the value of a transaction. In other settings, it could limit how much data the agent may access, how often it may use a tool, or whether it may perform restricted actions such as changing account settings or deleting records.

This shows that the result of the authorization process is not limited to a binary allow-or-deny decision. If the system detects greater risk, it can restrict what the agent may access, reduce how long the permission remains valid, or limit how often the agent can act.

The patent is Daon’s third covering AI agent governance.

The earlier patents addressed the agent’s continuing connection to a person and the integrity of its runtime behavior. Daon says the three patents create a progression from person-agent fidelity to behavioral integrity and action-level authorization.

The patent portfolio also extends Daon’s work on AI governance. The company recently received ISO/IEC 42001 certification following an independent audit of its management system governing the AI lifecycle.

The described patented capabilities are not commercially available.

Article Topics

AI agents  |  authentication  |  authorization  |  Daon  |  identity governance  |  non-human identities  |  patents