License manager and schema

• US 20080235141A1
• Filed: 03/21/2007
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Johnson, Bruce A., Watson, Eric B., Vajjiravel, Murali, Satkunanathan, Lingan, Levidow, Bjorn B., Sunkammurali, Krishna, Hilerio, Israel, Srivastava, Nisheeth
• Application Number:
  US11/726,070
• Publication Number:
  US 20080235141A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level

Abstract

A license management system may have an adapter or interface that enables any type of licensed software or service to be managed through a common administrative view. The adapters may use a common schema that includes various parameters about a license as well as information that may enable a license management system to interact with a license vendor or license provider. The licenses may include locally operating software, software operating over a local area network, and various services that may be provided over a network including the Internet. The license management system may support many types of licenses and may be able to consolidate license management of many different devices and types of devices. The license management system may display the various licenses, as well as provide some other functions including alerting, usage monitoring, and managing licenses.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a network connection;

a license collector adapted to receive license information from an application, said license information comprising;

license characteristics;

number of available licenses;

number of assigned licenses;

license expiration date;

an address for a license vendor, said address being a network address; and

a license cache comprising said license information.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a license administrator adapted to view said license information.

3. The system of claim 1, said license characteristics comprising:

a renewal policy.

4. The system of claim 1, said license characteristics comprising:

a license type.

5. The system of claim 4, said license type being at least one of a group composed of:

per device license, per user license, and a per use license.

6. The system of claim 1, said license being for a remote service.

7. The system of claim 6, said remote service being a service provided through the Internet.

8. The system of claim 1, said application being located on a remote device.

9. The system of claim 8, said remote device being located on the Internet.

10. A method comprising:

receiving license information through a license collection interface, said license information comprising;

license characteristics;

number of available licenses;

number of assigned licenses;

license expiration date;

an address for a license vendor, said address being a network address; and

storing said license information in a license cache.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

initiating a communication session with a license provider.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving a communication session initiation from a license provider.

13. The method of claim 10, said license information comprising at least one of a group composed of:

usage information and usage restrictions.

14. The method of claim 10, said license information pertaining to a service provided over the Internet.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

connecting to said license vendor using said address.

16. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions adapted to perform the method of claim 10.

17. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a data structure comprising:

a first data field containing available licenses for a software product;

a second data field containing assigned licenses for said software product;

a third data field containing license characteristics for said software product;

a fourth data field containing a license renewal policy for said software product;

a fifth data field containing a network address for a license provider for said software product.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, said software product comprising a service provided over a network.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, said network being the Internet.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 17, said network address being a Uniform Resource Locator.