INTEGRATED USER EXPERIENCE WHILE ALLOCATING LICENSES WITHIN VOLUME LICENSING SYSTEMS

• US 20090199299A1
• Filed: 01/31/2008
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tekmalkar, Sarang, Kostersitz, Michael, Sikka, Ashish, McKinnon, Casey Alexander John, Walker, Marc Andrew, Gallot, Damien, Acar, Tolga, Somasekaran, Anandhi, Keane, Thomas William
• Application Number:
  US12/024,099
• Publication Number:
  US 20090199299A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• 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]

Abstract

This description provides tools for providing integrated user experiences while allocating licenses within volume licensing systems. These tools may provide methods that include sending information for presenting licensing portals at recipient organizations. The licensing portals may include representations of properties licensed by the organizations, and may include indications of how many licenses remain available for allocation. The methods may include receiving and validating licensing requests. The tools may provide other methods that include requesting and receiving information for presenting the licensing portals, as well as requesting and receiving licensing-related actions from the licensing systems. The tools may provide still other methods that include receiving requests for information to present launch portals, with these requests incorporating user identifiers for particular end-users. These methods may also populate the launch portals with representations of properties for which the end-users are licensed, and may send the information for the launch portals to licensee organizations.

Claims

1. At least one computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when loaded into at least one processor and executed, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

sending information for presenting at least one licensing portal for display on at least one console associated with at least one recipient organization, wherein the licensing portal includes;

a representation of at least one property for which the organization has obtained a plurality of licenses;

an indication of how many licenses for the property remain available for allocation within the organization;

receiving at least one licensing request from the organization, wherein the licensing request relates to the property; and

validating the licensing request.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions for receiving at least one licensing request include instructions for receiving a licensing request to obtain at least one additional license for the property.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, further comprising instructions for allocating at least one previously-unallocated license for the property in response to the licensing request.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, further comprising instructions for updating the representation of the property in the licensing portal in response to the allocating.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions for receiving at least one licensing request include instructions for receiving a licensing request to allocate at least one of the licenses to at least one end-user.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions for validating the licensing request include instructions for determining whether executing the request to allocate the license would result in an overage.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions for receiving at least one licensing request include instructions for receiving a licensing request to deallocate at least one license previously allocated to at least one end-user.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the instructions for validating the licensing request include instructions for determining whether executing the request to deallocate the license would result in an underage.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for updating the indication of how many licenses for the property or made available, in response to allocations or de-allocations of the licenses.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for communicating an error notification to the organization, if the licensing request is determined to be invalid.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for executing the licensing request, if the licensing request is determined to be valid.

12. At least one computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when loaded into at least one processor and executed, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

requesting, from a licensing system, information for presenting at least one licensing portal;

receiving the information for presenting the licensing portal, wherein the licensing portal includes;

a representation of at least one property for which a licensee organization has obtained a plurality of licenses;

an indication of how many licenses for the property remain available for allocation within the organization;

sending at least one licensing request to the licensing system, wherein the licensing request relates to the property; and

receiving a response to the licensing request.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions for sending at least one licensing request include instructions for sending a request to allocate at least one of the plurality of licenses.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions for sending at least one licensing request include instructions for sending a request to deallocate at least one previously allocated license.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions for updating the indication of how many licenses for the property remain available, in response to allocations or de-allocations of the licenses.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions for sending at least one licensing request include instructions for sending a request to modify at least one configuration parameter associated with at least one of the licenses as allocated to a least one end-user.

17. At least one computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when loaded into at least one processor and executed, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving at least one request for information to present a launch portal, wherein the request includes at least one user identifier corresponding to an end-user in a licensee organization;

populating the launch portal with representations of any properties for which the end-user has been allocated a license by the licensee organization; and

sending the information for presenting the launch portal.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions for searching at least one database using the user identifier, and further comprising instructions for locating at least one property for which the end-user has been allocated a license.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions for populating the launch portal include instructions for populating the launch portal to include a representation of at least the one located property.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions for populating the launch portal with representations of only those properties for which the end-user has been allocated a license.