Method and system for licensing a software product

• US 20020174356A1
• Filed: 03/27/2001
• Published: 11/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wong, Eric, Padole, Arvind
• Granted Patent: US 6,993,664 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1011 to devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2137 Time limited access, e.g. to a computer or data

Abstract

A method and system for activating and obtaining a license for a software product is disclosed. A local license is obtained from a storage medium of the software product and is stored with the software product on a user'"'"'s computer. The local license allows for one of multiple license types to be activated from a single software product. The user enters a product key containing a channel ID. The compact disk or other storage medium is searched for the appropriate local license for the channel ID. The local license includes a MSIID, a channel ID range for each supported license type, a license type for each channel id range, and an optional product expiration date for the license type. The license type is determined by looking up the product key'"'"'s channel id in the local license'"'"'s channel id range table. If activation is required based on the license type, then an installation ID including a product ID (PID) and a hardware ID (H/W ID) are transmitted to an activation authority. The activation authority uses the PID to determine whether the software product has been activated before and uses the channel ID to determine the type of backend license to grant. If the PID is found in the database, the activation authority applies various unlocking rules to determine whether or not the backend license should be issued and, if so, the he activation authority transmits a backend license.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for activating a software product and installing the software product on a computer, comprising the steps of:

obtaining a local license from a storage medium of the software product and storing the local license with the software product on the computer by inputting a product key and obtaining the local license;

determining a license type and an installation ID for the software product, wherein the installation ID comprises a product ID (PID);

transmitting the installation ID to an activation authority;

at the activation authority, determining whether the PID has been used to activate the software product before and determining the type of backend license to grant; and

transmitting a backend license to the computer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the local license allows for one of a plurality of license types to be activated from the software product.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the product key comprises a channel ID and wherein the storage medium is searched for the corresponding local license corresponding to the channel ID.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the local license comprises a MSIID, a channel ID range for each supported license type, a license type for each channel ID range, and an optional product expiration date for the license type.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the license type is determined by searching for the product key'"'"'s channel id in the local license'"'"'s channel id range.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the installation ID further comprises a hardware ID (H/W ID) describing the hardware of the computer.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the activation authority uses the channel ID to determine the type of backend license to grant.

8. A method for activating a software product on a computer comprising a plurality of hardware components, comprising the steps of:

receiving a product key that identifies the software product;

generating a product ID (PID) from the product key and a backend product code (BPC) in the software product, wherein the PID comprises a channel ID indicating the commercial channel of the software product;

determining whether the software product needs to be activated based on the channel ID;

if so, then generating an installation ID from the PID and a representation of the plurality of hardware components of the computer;

transmitting the installation ID to an activation authority; and

receiving from the activation authority a backend license allowing the software product to fully operate on the computer.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the steps of:

installing a local license file comprising a plurality of activation rules for the software product comprising a channel ID range used to determine whether the software product needs to be activated based on the channel ID.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the backend license grants the user perpetual or temporary rights to use the software product.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the BPC is used to verify the backend license from the activation authority.

12. A method for determining whether to activate a license for a software product installed on a computer, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an installation ID comprising a product ID (PID) and a hardware ID (HWID), wherein the PID represents the software product and the HWID represents a plurality of hardware components in the computer;

determining whether the PID has been used before for activation;

if not, then storing the PID, HWID and an identifier of a backend license in a database; and

transmitting the backend license to the computer.