LICENSING VERIFICATION FOR APPLICATION USE

• US 20140325683A1
• Filed: 07/12/2014
• Published: 10/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Dwivedi, Sanjeev, Kadam, Sunil
• Granted Patent: US 9,069,936 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/29
• 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 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level

Abstract

Techniques involving detection of misuse of digital licenses pertaining to application use. An identification of unsigned applications or other use-protected applications enabled for use at a user device is obtained. The identification of such applications is directed to a licensing authority to seek digital license renewal for using the applications. A renewed digital license is received if the provided identification of use-protected applications corresponds to what is authorized by the licensing authority for use at the user device. In other embodiments, verification information may be provided to protect the identification of unsigned applications from tampering, such as information indicative of whether the identification of unsigned applications originated at the user device in which the use-protected applications are used, and indicative of whether the identification of the unsigned applications is a copy of a previous identification of the unsigned applications.

Claims

1. A method performed by a licensing authority, the method comprising:

receiving, by the licensing authority, a license renewal request generated by a computing device, wherein the computing device is configured to distinguish between signed use-protected applications and unsigned use-protected applications such that (i) use-protected applications that are signed are permitted to be used based on being signed and such that (ii) use of use-protected applications that are not signed requires a license from the licensing authority, wherein the license renewal request was generated by the computing device;

having determined that a license renewal was necessary and in response having identified one or more use-protected applications as unsigned,

having formed a set of one or more identifiers of the respective identified unsigned use-protected applications, and

having generated the license renewal request to include the set of one or more identifiers; and

based on the set of one or more identifiers of the unsigned use-protected applications, granting a license renewal for the computing device that is provided to the computing device by the licensing authority, the license renewal controlling whether the computing device will prohibit or permit use of the one or more unsigned use-protected applications on the computing device.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the providing of the licensing renewal comprises the licensing authority transmitting the licensing renewal via a network to the computing device.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the licensing authority comprises a server device.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the license renewal request further comprises a security element, the method further comprising confirming the security element against corresponding licensing data to determine whether to grant the license renewal request.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the security element comprises a timestamp, the method further comprising determining whether to grant the renewal request based on an age of the timestamp.

6. A method according to claim 4, wherein the security element comprises a hardware identifier of computing device, and wherein the confirming comprises accessing a set of hardware identifiers and determining whether the hardware identifier matches a corresponding hardware identifier in the set of hardware identifiers.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the license renewal comprises a renewal of a developer license.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein granting the license renewal based on the set of one or more identifiers comprises comparing the one or more identifiers against a set of application identifiers associated with the computing device.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the computing device is configured such that if the license renewal were not granted the computing device would not permit execution of the one or more unsigned use-protected applications based on lack of a license therefore.

10. A method performed by a computing device, the method comprising:

managing use-protected applications by distinguishing between signed use-protected applications and unsigned use-protected applications, wherein use-protected applications that are signed are permitted to be used based on being signed, and wherein use of use-protected applications that are not signed requires a license from a licensing authority;

responsive to a determination that the license has expired or is going to expire, identifying use-protected applications on the computing device that are not signed, and forming a plurality of identifiers of the respective use-protected applications identified as not being signed;

providing a license renewal request to a licensing authority, the license renewal request comprising the plurality of identifiers; and

according to whether or not a renewed digital license is obtained responsive to the license renewal request, either prohibiting or permitting use of the identified use-protected applications on the computing device, wherein whether a renewed digital license is to be provided by the licensing authority depends on the identifiers of the unsigned use-protected applications received by the licensing authority.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the renewed digital license comprises a developer license that facilitates software development on the computing device.

12. A method according to claim 10, wherein the renewed digital license comprises a timestamp signed by the licensing authority, the method further comprising initiating a second license renewal request responsive to determining, according to the timestamp, that the renewed digital license has expired or will expire.

13. A method according to claim 10, further comprising encrypting the license renewal request before providing the license renewal request to the licensing authority.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the licensing authority comprises a server device and the providing comprises transmitting the encrypted license renewal request via the network to the server device.

15. One or more storage apparatuses coupled with a computing device comprising a processor, the one or more storage apparatuses storing information to configure the processor, when the computing device is in operation, to perform a process, the process, when the computing device is operating, comprising:

managing execution of use-protected applications on the computing device such that whether signed use-protected applications are permitted to be used or executed depends on verification of respective signatures thereof and whether unsigned use-protected applications are permitted to be used or executed depends on whether the computing device is storing a valid license that enables the unsigned use-protected applications to be used or executed;

responsive to a determination that a valid license for the unsigned use-protected applications is to be obtained, identifying one or more of the use-protected applications on the computing device that are not signed, and generating a license request comprised of one or more identifiers of the respective one or more use-protected applications identified as not being signed;

providing the license request to a licensing authority, the license request comprising the one or more identifiers; and

receiving a valid license from the licensing authority in response to the license request, wherein the received valid license enables the unsigned use-protected applications to be used or executed, and wherein the licensing authority determined to provide the license based on the one or more identifiers of the unsigned use-protected applications received by the licensing authority in the license request.

16. One or more storage apparatuses according to claim 15, wherein signatures of use-protected applications on the computing device are computed by a software repository that manages distribution of applications to be installed on computing devices.

17. One or more storage apparatuses according to claim 15, wherein the determination by the licensing authority comprised comparing the one or more identifiers with one or more pre-stored application identifiers to determine that the one or more identifiers have been approved for unsigned execution.

18. One or more storage apparatuses according to claim 15, wherein the providing the license request comprises the computing device transmitting the license request via a data network to a server device hosting the licensing authority.

19. One or more storage apparatuses according to claim 15, wherein the license requests comprises a renewal request, and wherein the determination that a valid license is to be obtained comprises determining an expiration of a previous license.

20. One or more storage apparatuses according to claim 15, the process further comprising executing a licensing module on the computing device, the licensing module generating the license request and receiving and applying the valid license received from the licensing authority.