Creating rules for the administration of end-user license agreements

• US 8,635,162 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2005
• Issued: 01/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Burkhart, Michael J., Eisenhauer, Daniel G., Schumacher, Daniel M., Watson, Thomas J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Augustin, Evens J
• Application Number:
  US11/246,581
• Publication Number:
  US 20070083926A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,028 Days
• Field of Search: 705/59
• 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

Exemplary methods, systems, and products are described for creating rules for the administration of end-user license agreements (‘EULAs’). Creating rules for the administration of end-user license agreements is accomplished by identifying, from historical license data, a license administration pattern. A license administration rule is then created in dependence upon the license administration pattern. Identifying a license administration pattern from historical license data may include data mining a collection of accepted EULAs and data mining a collection of rejected EULAs.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for creating rules for the administration of end-user license agreements (‘

EULAs’

), the method comprising;

identifying, by one or more processors, from historical license data, a license administration pattern, the license administration pattern representing a trend in an organization'"'"'s administration of the EULAs, terms in the EULAs, or material subject to the EULAs;

creating, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, a license administration rule, the license administration rule representing a conditional expression used to establish conditions for accepting or rejecting the EULAs;

receiving, by the one or more processors, a request by a user to access material that is subject to at least one EULA of the EULAs;

determining, by the one or more processors, whether the at least one EULA is to be accepted or rejected based on the license administration rule;

in response to determining that the at least one EULA is to be accepted, causing, by the one or more processors, a message to be displayed on a display screen to instruct the user to accept the EULA; and

in response to determining that the at least one EULA is to be rejected, causing, by the one or more processors, a different message to be displayed on a display screen to instruct the user to reject the EULA.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying, from historical license data, a license administration pattern further comprises data mining a collection of accepted EULAs.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying, from historical license data, a license administration pattern further comprises data mining a collection of rejected EULAs.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein creating, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, a license administration rule further comprises:

defining, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, one or more conditions for accepting an EULA.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising associating an action with the one or more conditions.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein creating in dependence upon the license administration pattern a license administration rule further comprises:

defining, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, one or more conditions for rejecting an EULA.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising associating an action with the one or more conditions.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining whether one or more new license administration rules supersede one or more old license administration rules.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the trend comprises a condition to reject the EULA because of inclusion of at least one term of the terms in the EULA.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating an additional number of license administration rules representing conditional expressions used to establish conditions for accepting or rejecting the EULAs;

determining a cumulative count of license administration rules that includes the license administration rule and the additional number of license administration rules;

in response to the cumulative count exceeding a threshold, notifying one or more users that previously attempted to receive approval of a EULA but was rejected, wherein the notifying includes a notification that the one or more users should retry an attempt to receive approval of the EULA.

9. A system for creating rules for the administration of end-user license agreements (‘

EULAs’

), the system comprising at least one computer processor, at least one computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, and computer program instructions disposed within the computer memory, wherein the computer program instruction, when executed by computer processor cause the computer processor to take the steps of;

identifying, by one or more processors, from historical license data, a license administration pattern, the license administration pattern representing a trend in an organization'"'"'s administration of the EULAs, terms in the EULAs, or material subject to the EULAs;

creating, by the license administration server, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, a license administration rule, the license administration rule representing a conditional expression used to establish conditions for accepting or rejecting the EULAs;

receiving, by the one or more processors, a request by a user to access material that is subject to at least one EULA of the EULAs;

determining, by the one or more processors, whether the at least one EULA is to be accepted or rejected based on the license administration rule;

in response to determining that the at least one EULA is to be accepted, causing, by the one or more processors, a message to be displayed on a display screen to instruct the user to accept the EULA; and

in response to determining that the at least one EULA is to be rejected, causing, by the one or more processors, a different message to be displayed on a display screen to instruct the user to reject the EULA.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the computer memory also has disposed within it computer program instructions capable of data mining a collection of accepted EULAs.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the computer memory also has disposed within it computer program instructions capable of data mining a collection of rejected EULAs.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the computer memory also has disposed within it computer program instructions capable of:

defining, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, one or more conditions for accepting an EULA; and

associating an action with the one or more conditions.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the computer memory also has disposed within it computer program instructions capable of:

defining, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, one or more conditions for rejecting an EULA; and

associating an action with the one or more conditions.

14. A computer program product for creating rules for the administration of end-user license agreements (‘

EULAs’

), the computer program product embodied on a computer-readable non-transmission medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions for causing one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

identifying, by one or more processors, from historical license data, a license administration pattern, the license administration pattern representing a trend in an organization'"'"'s administration of the EULAs, terms in the EULAs, or material subject to the EULAs; and

creating, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, a license administration rule, the license administration rule representing a conditional expression used to establish conditions for accepting or rejecting the EULAs;

receiving, by the one or more processors, a request by a user to access material that is subject to at least one EULA of the EULAs;

determining, by the one or more processors, whether the at least one EULA is to be accepted or rejected based on the license administration rule;

in response to determining that the at least one EULA is to be accepted, causing, by the one or more processors, a message to be displayed on a display screen to instruct the user to accept the EULA; and

in response to determining that the at least one EULA is to be rejected, causing, by the one or more processors, a different message to be displayed on a display screen to instruct the user to reject the EULA.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the computer-readable medium comprises a recordable medium.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein computer program instructions for identifying, from historical license data, a license administration pattern further comprise computer program instructions for data mining a collection of accepted EULAs.

17. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein computer program instructions for identifying, from historical license data, a license administration pattern further comprise computer program instructions for data mining a collection of rejected EULAs.

18. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein computer program instructions for creating, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, a license administration rule further comprise:

computer program instructions for defining, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, one or more conditions for accepting an EULA; and

computer program instructions for associating an action with the one or more conditions.

19. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein computer program instructions for creating in dependence upon the license administration pattern a license administration rule further comprise:

computer program instructions for defining, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, one or more conditions for rejecting an EULA; and

computer program instructions for associating an action with the one or more conditions.

20. A computer-implemented method for creating rules for the administration of end-user license agreements (‘

EULAs’

), the method comprising;

identifying, by one or more processors, from historical license data, using data mining, a license administration pattern, the license administration pattern representing a trend in an organization'"'"'s administration of the EULAs, terms in the EULAs, or material subject to the EULAs, wherein data mining includes analyzing the historical license data and discovering relationships for determining the license administration pattern; and

creating, in dependence upon the license administration pattern, a license administration rule, the license administration rule representing a conditional expression used to establish conditions for accepting or rejecting the EULAs;

receiving, by the one or more processors, a request by a user to access material that is subject to at least one EULA of the EULAs;

determining, by the one or more processors, whether the at least one EULA is to be accepted or rejected based on the license administration rule;

in response to determining that the at least one EULA is to be accepted, causing, by the one or more processors, a message to be displayed on a display screen to instruct the user to accept the EULA; and

in response to determining that the at least one EULA is to be rejected, causing, by the one or more processors, a different message to be displayed on a display screen to instruct the user to reject the EULA.