Management interface for license management system
First Claim
1. A method of managing use of licensed software items, said software items separately executable on a computer system or accessible by said computer system, the computer system including a processor and one or more nodes, comprising the steps of:
- maintaining by said processor a store of license authorizations for said software items;
each license authorization including an indication of license management policy for a software item, said indication having a plurality of sets of policy components, said sets of policy components granting specified restrictive rights to execute or access said software items by said nodes;
said specified restrictive rights including sets of restrictions in at least context of use and duration of use of a software item;
said policy components of each set providing alternatives in rights to execute or access said software items by one or more nodes in said computer system;
said license authorizations being received by said processor, for storing in said store, from a license grantor external to said processor;
accessing said store by said processor using management functions executed on said processor to identify a license authorization in said store, and to modify in said store one or more of said specified restrictive rights of said policy components of the identified license authorization.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A distributed computer system employs a license management system to account for software product usage. A management policy having a variety of alternative styles and contexts is provided. Each licensed product upon start-up makes a call to a license server to check on whether usage is permitted, and the license server checks a database of the licenses, called product use authorizations, that it administers. If the particular use requested is permitted, a grant is returned to the requesting user node. The product use authorization is structured to define a license management policy allowing a variety of license alternatives by values called "style", "context", "duration" and "usage requirements determination method". The license administration may be delegated by the license server to a subsection of the organization, by creating another license management facility duplicating the main facility. The license server must receive a license document (a product use authorization) from an issuer of licenses, where a license document generator is provided. A mechanism is provided for one user node to make a call to use a software product located on another user node; this is referred to as a "calling card", by which a user node obtains permission to make a procedure call to use a program on another node. A management interface allows a license manager at a server to modify the license documents in the database maintained by the server, within the restraints imposed by the license, to make delegations, assignments, etc. The license documents are maintained in a standard format referred to as a license document interchange format so the management system is portable and can be used by all adhering software vendors. A feature of the database management is the use of a filter function.
1101 Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method of managing use of licensed software items, said software items separately executable on a computer system or accessible by said computer system, the computer system including a processor and one or more nodes, comprising the steps of:
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maintaining by said processor a store of license authorizations for said software items;
each license authorization including an indication of license management policy for a software item, said indication having a plurality of sets of policy components, said sets of policy components granting specified restrictive rights to execute or access said software items by said nodes;
said specified restrictive rights including sets of restrictions in at least context of use and duration of use of a software item;
said policy components of each set providing alternatives in rights to execute or access said software items by one or more nodes in said computer system;
said license authorizations being received by said processor, for storing in said store, from a license grantor external to said processor;accessing said store by said processor using management functions executed on said processor to identify a license authorization in said store, and to modify in said store one or more of said specified restrictive rights of said policy components of the identified license authorization. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 29)
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16. A system executable on a computer for managing use of a plurality of licensed software products, said software products operable separately from said system, said system comprising:
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means executing on said computer for maintaining and accessing a store of license documents, one document for each said product;
each license document in said store including an indication of license policy, sad indication having plurality of sets of policy components, sand policy components granting specified restrictive rights to use said software products;
said specified restrictive rights including at least restrictions in context of use and duration of use of a software product;
each said set of said policy components providing different alternative for said restrictive rights;a management interface executable on said computer for accessing said store to modify selected ones of said policy components of an identified license document. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31)
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Specification