Software suite activation

• US 9,563,882 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2009
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Vijay, Shyam Sunder, Xu, Xuejun
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Steven
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHOO, JOHANN Y
• Application Number:
  US12/367,666
• Publication Number:
  US 20140033313A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,920 Days
• Field of Search: 705/59
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing

Abstract

A method and a system perform software suite activation. In some embodiments, a method includes installing a software suite having a number of software products onto a computer device. If a copy of one of the number of software products is already activated on the computer device, the installing includes deactivating a license of the copy of the one of the number of software products. Additionally, if a copy of one of the number of software products is already activated on the computer device, the installing includes adopting, by the software suite, the copy of the one of the number of software products.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium that provides instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause said machine to perform operations for installing a software suite comprising a number of software products onto a computing device where a copy of at least one of the software products is already installed and activated on the computing device, the operations comprising:

installing a software suite onto the computer device, the software suite comprising the number of software products, wherein the installing includes performing operations comprising;

determining that the copy of at least one of the number of software products in the suite is already installed and activated on the computer device;

in response to determining that the installed copy is already activated on the computer device, deactivating a license of the installed copy; and

changing a serial number of the installed copy of the one of the number of software products to match a serial number of the software suite.

2. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

redirecting the deactivated license of the installed copy of the one of the number of software products to a license of the software suite.

3. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, the operations further comprising notifying a user, causing the installing of the software suite, that the license of the installed copy of the one of the number of software products is being deactivated.

4. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, the operations further comprising redirecting the license of the installed copy of the one of the number of software products to a different computer device.

5. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the determination that the copy of at least one of the number of software products in the suite is already activated on the computer device comprises at least one of a determination of an existence of a file or a flag indicator stored on the computer device and a determination based on a query to a server communicatively coupled to the computer device.

6. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors to execute;

an activation logic for receiving a software suite having a number of software products for installation onto a computer device; and

an adoption logic operations determining whether a copy of one of the number of software products is already activated on the computer device,

based on a determination that the copy of the one of the number of software products is already activated on the computer device,

the activation logic further for deactivating a license of the copy of the one of the number of software products, and

the adoption logic further for adopting, by the software suite, the copy of the one of the number of software products,

wherein the adoption logic is further configured to change a serial number of the copy of the one of the number of software products to match a serial number of the software suite.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the adoption logic is further configured to redirect a license of the copy of the one of the number of software products to a license of the software suite.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the adoption logic is further configured to notify a user, causing the installing of the software suite, that the license of the copy of the one of the number of software products is being deactivated.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the adoption logic is further configured to redirect the license of the copy of the one of the number of software products to a different computer device.

10. A method comprising:

installing, using one or more processors, a software suite having a number of software products onto a computer device, wherein the installing includes performing operations in response to a determination that a copy of one of the number of software products is already activated on the computer device, the operations comprising deactivating a license of the copy of the one of the number of software products already activated on the computer device; and

adopting, by the software suite, the copy of the one of the number of software products, wherein the adopting comprises;

changing a serial number of the copy of the one of the number of software products to match a serial number of the software suite; and

redirecting a license of the copy of the one of the number of software products to a license of the software suite.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determination that the copy of the one of the number of software products is already activated on the computer device comprises at least one of a determination of an existence of a file or a flag indicator stored on computer device and a determination based on a query to a server communicatively coupled to the computer device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the performing of the following operations further comprises notifying a user, causing the installing of the software suite, that the license of the copy of the one of the number of software products is being deactivated.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the performing of the following operations further comprises redirecting the license of the copy of the one of the number of software products to a different computer device.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium that provides instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause said machine to perform operations comprising:

installing a software suite having a number of software products onto a computer device, wherein the installing includes performing operations in response to a determination that a copy of one of the number of software products is already activated on the computer device, the operations comprising deactivating a license of the copy of the one of the number of software products already activated on the computer device; and

adopting, by the software suite, the copy of the one of the number of software products, wherein the adopting comprises;

changing a serial number of the copy of the one of the number of software products to match a serial number of the software suite; and

redirecting a license of the copy of the one of the number of software products to a license of the software suite.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the performing of the following operations further comprises notifying a user, causing the installing of the software suite, that the license of the copy of the one of the number of software products is being deactivated.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the performing of the following operations further comprises redirecting the license of the copy of the one of the number of software products to a different computer device.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the determination that the copy of the one of the number of software products is already activated on the computer device comprises at least one of a determination of an existence of a file or a flag indicator stored on computer device and a determination based on a query to a server communicatively coupled to the computer device.

18. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors to execute;

an activation logic for receiving a software suite having a number of software products for installation onto a computer device; and

an adoption logic for determining whether a copy of one of the number of software products is already activated on the computer device;

based on a determination that the copy of the one of the number of software products is already activated on the computer device,

the activation logic further for deactivating a license of the copy of the one of the number of software products; and

the adoption logic further for adopting, by the software suite, the copy of the one of the number of software products by changing a serial number of the copy of the one of the number of software products to match a serial number of the software suite and redirecting a license of the copy of the one of the number of software products to a license of the software suite.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the adoption logic is further configured to notify a user, causing the installing of the software suite, that the license of the copy of the one of the number of software products is being deactivated.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the adoption logic is further configured to redirect the license of the copy of the one of the number of software products to a different computer device.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the determining that the copy of the one of the number of software products is already activated on the computer device comprises at least one of a determining of an existence of a file or a flag indicator stored on computer device and a determining based on a query to a server communicatively coupled to the computer device.