Identifying software
First Claim
1. A computer implemented method of establishing the identity of software installed on a computer having a processor, the software being purportedly identified by identification data associated with the installed software, the method using a catalogue of established software identification data, the method comprising:
- mapping, by the processor, the purported identification data to established identification data in the catalogue having the form publisher name, product name and version number, the mapping including;
processing the purported identification data to isolate portions of the purported identification data apparently respectively corresponding to a publisher name,comparing an isolated purported publisher name with words in a dictionary,weighting the name with a first weight if the name is not in the dictionary and with a second weight if the name is in the dictionary, andmatching the purported publisher name to a publisher name in the catalogue in dependence on the weighting; and
using, in further processing by the processor, the identification data to which the purported data is mapped as the established identification data of the installed software.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Software installed on a computer network is often inconsistently, or even incorrectly, identified. The same software may be identified in different ways. A catalogue of standardized identifiers is provided. The actual identifiers of software installed on the network are accessed and they are mapped to the standardized identifiers of the catalogue. The standardized identifiers are used to manage the installed software, monitor license compliance and/or, monitor maintenance agreements amongst other uses. Data relating to the use of the software may also be obtained and associated with the identification data. The usage data together with the standardized identifiers allows managers to more reliably manage software on the network. For example un-used software may be un-installed and licenses cancelled or reallocated.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A computer implemented method of establishing the identity of software installed on a computer having a processor, the software being purportedly identified by identification data associated with the installed software, the method using a catalogue of established software identification data, the method comprising:
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mapping, by the processor, the purported identification data to established identification data in the catalogue having the form publisher name, product name and version number, the mapping including; processing the purported identification data to isolate portions of the purported identification data apparently respectively corresponding to a publisher name, comparing an isolated purported publisher name with words in a dictionary, weighting the name with a first weight if the name is not in the dictionary and with a second weight if the name is in the dictionary, and matching the purported publisher name to a publisher name in the catalogue in dependence on the weighting; and using, in further processing by the processor, the identification data to which the purported data is mapped as the established identification data of the installed software. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program, the program comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to establish the identity of software installed on another computer, the software being purportedly identified by identification data associated with the installed software, by
accessing a catalogue of established software identification data having the form publisher name, product name and version number; -
mapping the purported identification data to the established identification data in the catalogue, the mapping including; processing the purported identification data to isolate portions of the purported identification data apparently respectively corresponding to a publisher name, comparing an isolated purported publisher name with words in a dictionary, weighting the name with a first weight if the name is not in the dictionary and with a second weight if the name is in the dictionary, and matching the purported publisher name to a publisher name in the catalogue in dependence on the weighting; and using the identification data to which the purported data is mapped as the established identification data of the installed software.
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26. A computer system, comprising:
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a plurality of user computers coupled to a network; and one or more administrative computers, coupled to the network, on which a systems management tool and an identification data processing engine are installed, wherein the systems management tool stores software identification data and computer identifiers identifying the software installed on the user computers, and also stores usage data relating to the usage of the installed software, and wherein the identification data processing engine has a catalogue of standardised software identification data having the form publisher name, product name and version number, and wherein the identification data processing engine is configured to map identification data derived from the systems management tool to the standardised identification data of the catalogue to produce standardised identifiers of the installed software, including; processing the identification data to isolate portions of the identification data apparently respectively corresponding to a publisher name, comparing an isolated publisher name with words in a dictionary, weighting the name with a first weight if the name is not in the dictionary and with a second weight if the name is in the dictionary, and matching the publisher name to a catalogue publisher name in dependence on the weighting. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification