System and method for licensing software

• US 9,015,696 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2012
• Issued: 04/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cyberlink Corporation
• Original Assignee: Cyberlink Corporation
• Inventors: Demeyer, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Deng, Anna
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wu, Junchun
• Application Number:
  US13/611,762
• Publication Number:
  US 20130006852A1
• Time in Patent Office: 951 Days
• Field of Search: 717/172
• US Class Current: 717/172
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]

Abstract

A system and method for licensing software using a clearinghouse to license only the technology modules that an end user registers. The clearinghouse maintains registration information which can be used to bill a software provider for the technology licensed to the end user. The system can be used to compensate technology owners only after the end user registers an unlicensed technology module. Thus, the system and method allows software vendors to reduce costs by licensing only the technologies that an end user actually uses. The clearinghouse can also be used to track the usage of software functionality to determine the popularity of a particular technology.

Claims

1. A method associated with the execution of software on a computer system comprising:

requesting the execution of a software routine in the software, the request initiated by a first party comprising an end user;

determining by the software whether execution of the software routine requires a payment to a third party without user interaction, the third party comprising a technology provider; and

dispatching a notification to a second party comprising a software provider, the notification indicating that the software routine has been invoked by the first party,

wherein the notification is a record sent to the second party indicating that the third party requires the payment from the second party for the execution of the software routine,

wherein the second party pays licensing fees to the third party only for actual execution of the software routine by the client user, and

wherein the licensing fee paid for the actual execution of the software routine is paid on a function-by-function basis.

2. The method of claim 1, further including the step of:

restricting usage of the software routine until the notification has been sent to a second party.

3. A method associated with the execution of software on a computer system comprising a plurality of functions, wherein each function corresponds to a different technology owned by a corresponding technology holder, the method comprising:

receiving a request to execute at least one of the functions corresponding to different technologies in the software, the request being initiated by a client user;

determining by the software whether the execution of the software routine requires a payment to a corresponding technology holder without user interaction; and

dispatching a notification to a software provider indicating that the at least one function has been executed by the client device, wherein the notification is sent to the software provider to trigger payment by the software provider to the corresponding technology holder for the execution of the at least one of the functions,

wherein the software provider pays licensing fees to the technology holder only for actual execution of the software routine by the client user, and

wherein the licensing fee paid for the actual execution of the software routine is paid on a function-by-function basis.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the software provider sends payment to the technology holder only according to actual usage of functions in the software by the client user.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the software is fully licensed.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of functions is initially unregistered when the software is received by the client user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a function is registered upon being executed by the client device.