System and method for software selling

• US 20020107750A1
• Filed: 02/05/2001
• Published: 08/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kanevsky, Dimitri, Pickover, Clifford A., Zlatsin, Alexander, Sabath, Mariusz
• Granted Patent: US 7,092,907 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Methods and system to progressively degrade a trial version of software products in various ways so as to permit the user to continue to use the product until the user becomes reliant on the product and becomes so frustrated that the user purchases the product. This approach, it may be noted, is also useful for discouraging illegal use of software without proper licenses. The trial or demonstration version of the software program may degrade in any one or more of a number of ways. For instance, the brightness may fade, the application window may shrink, the font may degrade, features may drop out, the display quality may degrade, the sound quality may diminish, the processing speed may decrease, or the network bandwidth may decrease.

Claims

1. An application system that is running in CPU and that is capable to changing of the appearance and performance of specified applications in such a way to force a user to abandon this specified application and purchase a new one.

2. The system as in claim 1, where changing of the appearance include one or more of the following:

change color, change contrast, change fonts, change intensity, change refresh rate, change content of pictures etc.

3. The system as in claim 1, wherein changing of performance includes one or more of the following:

the brightness fades so that it is harder for the user to use the software tool as time progresses;

the application window shrinks through time;

the font degrades;

features gradually drop out;

display quality degrades;

sound quality degrades;

processing speed degrades;

network bandwidth degrades;

unpleasant visual and auditory stimulus is produced; and

information degrades.

4. The system as in claim 1 where changing in the program appearance leads to degradation of the view of the application.

5. The system as in claim 1 where changes in performance leads to degradation of performance (lower speed, pauses etc.).

6. The system as in claim 2 where colors, contrast and fonts are degraded.

7. The system as in claim 1 where changes are adjusted to time and starts after some time limits.

8. The system as in claim 7 where adjustment to time means gradual changes.

9. The system as in claim 1 where this system is a part of the specified application.

10. The system as in claim 1 where changes are obtained by manipulating drives in PC.

11. The system in claim 1 where users pay money or view advertisements to reduce or eliminate degradation.

12. The system in claim 11 where money is paid to any of:

software manufacturer, seller, third party, or degradation service provider.

13. The system in claim 12 where the amount of degradation is related to the amount of money paid.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein said subprogram begins to diminish the performance of the main program a defined period of time after the user begins to use the trial application.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein said subprogram gradually diminishes the performance of the main program over a given time starting at the end of said defined period of time.

18. A system according to claim 17, wherein said means for diminishing included means to begin to diminish the performance of the main program a defined period of time after the user begins to use the trial application.

19. A system according to claim 18, wherein said means for diminishing includes means to diminish gradually the performance of the main program over a given time starting at the end of said defined period of time.

14. A method of operating a trial software application, said trial application being associated with a defined full application, said method comprising the steps of:

providing the trial application with a main program; and

providing the trial application with a subprogram to diminish the performance of the main program over time in order to encourage a user to purchase said defined full application.

17. A system for operating a trial software application, said trial application having a main program and being associated with a defined full application, said system comprising:

means for operating the main program;

means for diminishing the performance of the main program over time in order to encourage a user to purchase said defined full application.

20. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for encouraging a user to purchase a full version software application related to a trial version, said method steps comprising:

providing the user with the trial version;

allowing the user to use the full capacity of the trial version for a defined period of time;

after said defined period of time, diminishing the performance of the trial version to encourage the user to purchase said full version.

21. A program storage device according to claim 20, wherein the diminishing step includes the step of gradually diminishing the performance of the trail program over a given time starting at the end of said defined period of time.