System and method of owner application control of electronic devices
First Claim
1. A method of controlling an application for use on an electronic device, the method comprising:
- receiving an operation request from an application;
determining whether the requested operation is allowed to be performed by the application based upon a stored authorization record and an application identifier associated with the application; and
allowing the application to perform the requested operation if the requested operation is determined to be allowed to be performed by the application,wherein the authorization record and the application identifier are provided by an external source to the electronic device through a wireless communication channel,wherein the stored authorization record is associated with data indicative of whether applications are required, allowed, or excluded, wherein the electronic device is configured to periodically determine whether required applications are installed on the electronic device, and wherein the electronic device becomes substantially disabled when the electronic device determines a required application is not installed on the electronic device.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods of owner application control of an electronic device are provided. Owner application control information is stored on the electronic device and/or one or more remote servers. Owner application control information is consulted to determine if one or more required applications are available for execution on the electronic device. If not, one or more required applications not available are downloaded and installed. This could be in a manner transparent to the user of the electronic device. If one or more required applications are not available on the electronic device, the device can be functionally disabled in whole, or in part, until one or more required applications are available.
42 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method of controlling an application for use on an electronic device, the method comprising:
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receiving an operation request from an application; determining whether the requested operation is allowed to be performed by the application based upon a stored authorization record and an application identifier associated with the application; and allowing the application to perform the requested operation if the requested operation is determined to be allowed to be performed by the application, wherein the authorization record and the application identifier are provided by an external source to the electronic device through a wireless communication channel, wherein the stored authorization record is associated with data indicative of whether applications are required, allowed, or excluded, wherein the electronic device is configured to periodically determine whether required applications are installed on the electronic device, and wherein the electronic device becomes substantially disabled when the electronic device determines a required application is not installed on the electronic device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system of application control for use on an electronic device, the system comprising:
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an authorization record store configured to store operation authorization data records and application identifiers that are associated with the operation authorization data records, wherein the operation authorization data records and the application identifiers are provided to the electronic device by an external source through a wireless communication channel; and software instructions that are configured to consult the operation authorization data records in the authorization record store in order to determine whether an operation requested by an application operating on the electronic device is allowed to be performed by the application; wherein the application identifiers associated with the operation authorization data records are used to determine which of the operation authorization data records is to be used by the software instructions in determining whether to permit the requested operation, wherein the electronic device is configured to periodically determine whether excluded applications are installed on the electronic device, and wherein the electronic device becomes substantially disabled if the electronic device determines an excluded application is installed on the electronic device. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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16. A system of application control for use on a wireless mobile communications device, the system comprising:
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means for receiving an operation request from an application, wherein the requested operation is selected from the group consisting of;
opening a connection, accessing a telephone API, accessing local memory, and communicating with another executing application;means for determining whether the requested operation is allowed to be performed by the application based upon a stored authorization record and an application identifier associated with the application, wherein the stored authorization record is associated with data indicative of whether the application is required, allowed, or excluded, and wherein the authorization record related to determining whether the requested operation is to be allowed is provided through a wireless communication channel by an external computer that is used to enforce policies for operating electronic devices within an organization; and means for allowing the application to perform the requested operation based upon whether the requested operation is determined to be allowed to be performed by the application, wherein the wireless mobile communications device is configured to periodically determine whether excluded applications are installed on the wireless mobile communications device, and wherein the wireless mobile communications device becomes substantially disabled if the wireless mobile communications device determines an excluded application is installed on the wireless mobile communications device.
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Specification