US 20140208439 published yesterday, with the intriguing title, "INJUSTICE DETECTING SYSTEM, INJUSTICE DETECTING DEVICE AND INJUSTICE DETECTING METHOD". Thinking that someone may have invented a way to identify rogue regimes - a method for which there is a long-felt need, considering that much of the world seems to be unable to identify Hamas as such, even though there couldn't be a clearer example - I quickly looked at the claims. Imagine my disappointment when I saw that claim 1 reads,
1. An injustice detecting system, comprising: a history storing unit which stores operation history information of a monitored device; an audit information disclosing unit which discloses audit information including at least information which indicates that an audit for detecting an injustice; and an injustice detecting unit which detects an injustice on the basis of pre-disclosure operation history information corresponding to said operation history information before a time when said audit information is disclosed, and post-disclosure operation history information corresponding to said operation history information after the time when said audit information is disclosed.
My hopes dashed, I surmised that there must be a mistake in translation somewhere (the application belongs to Japan's NEC Corporation, not an industrial lightweight). so I looked at the related PCT/JP2012/061799 (WO/2012/153746) for clues. The PCT has the title, "FRAUD DETECTION SYSTEM, FRAUD DETECTION DEVICE, FRAUD DETECTION METHOD, AND NON-VOLATILE MEDIUM", and the English-language abstract,
"The present invention provides a fraud detection system enabling detection of fraud that is performed through an operation that cannot be distinguished from normal operation. This fraud detection system is provided with: a history recorder for recording operational history information for a monitored device; an audit information disclosure unit for disclosing audit information including at least information indicating that an audit for detecting fraud is to be implemented; and a fraud detector for detecting fraud on the basis of pre-disclosure operation history information, which is operation history information from before the time at which the audit information is disclosed, and post-disclosure operation history information, which is operation history information from after the time at which the audit information is disclosed."
Ahh, that's more like it. But where did the "injustice" make its way into the US application?