Programming interface for licensing

• US 10,437,964 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2003
• Issued: 10/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Gunyakti, Caglar, Hsu, Wen-Pin Scott, Zhang, Ning
• Primary Examiner(s): Casey, Alexis M
• Application Number:
  US10/692,868
• Publication Number:
  US 20050091168A1
• Time in Patent Office: 5,828 Days
• Field of Search: 705 59
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 87/00 Fishing rods
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1063 Personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/18 Licensing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/22 by structural association with other equipment or articles
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/3275 mounted on a horizontal surface of the vehicle, e.g. on roof, hood, trunk

Abstract

A software licensing Application Programming Interface (API) that allows software products to use the license management functionality of a common service. A license specifies rights in a software product. The software product calls a consume method on the API in order to consume a right. If the right exists, the service binds the right to the license in which the right is found. The software product enforces the terms of the license by granting, or denying, access to some or all features depending on whether a valid instance of the right is found. Arbitrary data can be associated with a right. The API includes a method to retrieve data from a right that has been previously bound by the consume method.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one computer processor;

a license store that stores license files for different software products, said license files including licenses to the different software products specifying rights and conditions on the exercise of said rights; and

memory coupled to the at least one computer processor, the memory comprising executable instructions that, based on execution by the at least one computer processor, cause the at least one computer processor to automatically;

expose an application programming interface that provides access by application programs to license information associated with the different software products in said license files in said license store;

receive from an application program via said application programming interface a request comprising an indication of a software product and a request to exercise a right granted in a license to the software product in said license files;

check whether the license for the indicated software product is valid;

based at least on the license for the indicated software product being valid, obtaining from said license store rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request; and

provide, based at least on receiving the request via said application programming interface, the rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request to the application program without implementing any mechanism for granting or denying the rights granted in the license for the software product, wherein the instructions for checking whether the license for the indicated software product is valid further comprises instructions for determining that the license for the indicated software product is bound to the software product by determining whether the rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request can be exercised based on whether the rights are bound to a machine executing the application program from which the request was received, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for establishing a context for asynchronous processing and processing the request from the application program, asynchronously, in accordance with the established context, and wherein the executable instructions are executed by an operating system.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a trust store that stores data used in a license validation process in a tamper-resistant manner.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions for checking that the license for the indicated software product is valid includes instructions for determining, via a conflict rule, which license to obtain from a plurality of licenses indicated by said license files that are stored in the license store for the software product, the plurality of licenses including the license to the software product.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request comprise an indication of a validity of the rights granted in the license for the software product.

5. A method comprising:

exposing an application programming interface that provides access by application programs to license information in a license store storing license files for different software products, said license files including licenses to the different software products specifying rights and conditions on the exercise of said rights;

receiving from an application program via said application programming interface a request comprising an indication of a software product having a license file in the license store and a request to exercise a right granted in a license to the software product in said license files;

checking whether the license for the indicated software product is valid;

based at least on the license for the indicated software product being valid, obtaining from said license store rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request;

providing, based at least on receiving the request via said application programming interface, the rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request to the application program without implementing any mechanism for granting or denying the rights granted in the license for the software product, wherein checking whether the license for the indicated software product is valid further comprises determining that the license for the indicated software product is bound to the software product by determining whether the rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request can be exercised based on whether the rights are bound to a machine executing the application program from which the request was received;

establishing a context for asynchronous processing; and

processing the request from the application program, asynchronously, in accordance with the established context, wherein the method is executed by an operating system.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising storing data used in a license validation process in a trust store in tamper-resistant manner.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein checking that the license for the indicated software product is valid includes determining, via a conflict rule, which license to obtain from a plurality of licenses in said license files that are stored in the license store for the software product, the plurality of licenses including the license to the software product.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request comprise an indication of a validity of the rights granted in the license for the software product.

9. A computer-readable memory device comprising executable instructions that, based on execution by at least one computer processor, cause the at least one computer processor to:

expose an application programming interface that allows application programs to request license information contained in a license store storing license files for different software products, said license files including licenses to the different software products specifying at least one right;

receive from an application program at least via said application programming interface a request comprising an indication of a software product having a license file in the license store and a request to exercise a right granted in a license to the software product in said license files;

check whether the license for the indicated software product is valid;

based at least on the license for the indicated software product being valid, obtain from said license store the at least one right granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request;

provide, based at least on receiving the request via said application programming interface, the at least one right granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request to the application program without implementing any mechanism for granting or denying the rights granted in the license for the software product, wherein checking whether the license for the indicated software product is valid further comprises determining that the license for the indicated software product is bound to the software product by determining whether the rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request can be exercised based on whether the rights are bound to a machine executing the application program from which the request was received;

establishing a context for asynchronous processing; and

processing the request from the application program, asynchronously, in accordance with the established context, wherein the instructions are executed by an operating system.

10. The memory device of claim 9, further comprising instructions for storing data used in a license validation process in a trust store in tamper-resistant manner.

11. The memory device of claim 9, wherein instructions for checking that the license for the indicated software product is valid includes instructions for determining, via a conflict rule, which license to obtain from a plurality of licenses in said license files that are stored in the license store for the software product, the plurality of licenses including the license to the software product.

12. The memory device of claim 9, wherein instructions to check whether the license for the indicated software product is valid comprises instructions that further cause the at least one processor to determine whether the rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request can be exercised based on whether rights are bound to a class of machines of which a machine executing the application program from which the request was received is a member.

13. The memory device of claim 9, wherein the license files further specify at least one condition on the exercise of said at least one right.

14. The memory device of claim 9, wherein the check further comprises checking whether the license for the indicated software product is bound to the software product.

15. The memory device of claim 9, wherein the obtaining the at least one right further comprises determining whether the license for the indicated software product is valid and bound to the software product, and obtaining the at least one right and conditions of the exercise of said at least one right granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request when the at least one right and conditions of the exercise of said at least one right granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request is valid and bound to the software product.

16. The memory device of claim 15, wherein providing the at least one right based at least on receiving the request, further comprises providing the at least one right and the conditions of the exercise of said at least one right granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request or the information from the license to the software product indicated in the request to the application software without implementing any mechanism for granting or denying the rights granted in the license for the software product.