Method of and system for monitoring an application
First Claim
1. A method of monitoring the usage of an application on a network, the method comprising:
- associating an application beacon with an application to form a tagged application;
activating said application beacon in said tagged application; and
transmitting application information concerning usage of said tagged application.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A preferred embodiment of the invention provides an Application Metering method (and corresponding system) for monitoring usage of an Application (e.g., software program, content file, component, product, etc.) anywhere on a Network. In accordance with a preferred embodiment, an Application Beacon can be used in or in conjunction with an Application to make a Tagged Application. Upon activation of the Tagged Application the Beacon effectuates transmission of Application Information from the Tagged Application to an Application Metering Module. A preferred embodiment of the invention provides a method (and corresponding system) for compensating Application Developers according to usage of an Application by monitoring usage of an Application based on Application Information and Deployment Information compiled by a Billing Module. The Billing Module may invoice or extract payment from end users and provide compensation to Application Developers (or to producers or other distributors of the Application).
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of monitoring the usage of an application on a network, the method comprising:
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associating an application beacon with an application to form a tagged application;
activating said application beacon in said tagged application; and
transmitting application information concerning usage of said tagged application. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system for monitoring the usage of a software application on a network, the system comprising:
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an application management module, coupled to the network, wherein said application management module supplies at least one application beacon for embedding in a software application; and
an application metering module, coupled to the network, wherein said application metering module receives application information concerning usage of the software application on the network.
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11. A system for monitoring the usage of an application, the system comprising:
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a processing unit; and
a memory, wherein a computer program is stored in said memory for execution by said processing unit to embed a beacon in an application, and transmit application information concerning usage of the application.
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12. A method of compensating application developers according to usage of an application, the method comprising:
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embedding an application beacon in an application to make a tagged application;
activating said tagged application;
transmitting application information concerning usage of the application;
monitoring usage of said application; and
compensating an application developer according to usage of said application. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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14. A method of monitoring the usage of a content file on a network, the method comprising:
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embedding an application beacon in a content file to form a tagged content file;
transmitting application information concerning usage of the tagged content file in response to the application beacon; and
compensating a content file owner according to usage of the tagged content file. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. A system for monitoring usage of an application on a network, wherein the application is embedded with a beacon in the form of API source code to form a tagged application, the system comprising:
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a portal Web site, wherein said portal Web site stores and distributes to customers applications for application developers;
a customer server comprising;
a processing unit; and
a memory, wherein a computer program is stored in said memory for execution by said processing unit to download a tagged application from said portal Web site, activate the tagged application using an application key, utilize the beacon to generate application information comprising an IP address and the number of users of said tagged application, and transmit the application information using data packets in Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP);
an application metering module receiving application information from said customer server, wherein said application metering module compiles statistics regarding deployment and usage of said tagged application, and outputs deployment information containing the application information; and
a billing module receiving the deployment information from said application metering module, wherein said billing module associates the deployment information with one of a plurality of application developers and issues payment to an associated one of the application developers in accordance with a predetermined schedule. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification