Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Business processing using cryptography – Usage protection of distributed data files
Utility Patent
1998-07-02
2001-01-02
Trammell, James R. (Department: 2764)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Business processing using cryptography
Usage protection of distributed data files
C705S051000, C705S055000, C705S056000, C705S058000
Utility Patent
active
06169976
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to installing, registering, or activating licensed computer products, such as software products. The invention relates more specifically to installing, registering, activating and regulating licensed software products by having license terms that are enforced during installation, registration, activation and continues operation.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An explosion in the creation, production, and distribution of licensed products is occurring. In this context, “licensed product” refers to a product in which the manufacturer, producer or distributor transfers certain intangible rights in the product to the consumer. Examples of licensed products are computer software, computer games, and musical works.
Such products are licensed to the consumer or end user, rather than sold, for several different reasons. In most cases, licensed products are easily reproducible using computers or digital equipment. In addition, often the manufacturer, producer or distributor charges a license fee to each user or for each copy of the product. Accordingly, the manufacturer, producer or director needs to control when and how the product is copied, to prevent unauthorized use or reproduction of the product.
Further, when the license fee charged by the manufacturer, producer, or distributor is tied to the number of authorized users or clients of the licensed product, there is potentially an infinite number of stock numbers or part numbers that can be assigned to the product. For example, using a slavish scheme, the manufacturer or producer of a licensed product could assign a different stock number for each number of authorized users or clients (part number
202
represents Product X with 200 authorized users, number
204
represents Product X with 500 users, etc.). Such schemes rapidly become unwieldy.
These schemes can also create planning problems. Some licensed products that are offered at different (license levels) are delivered with identical operational code. Thus, when the end user receives tangible media for the product, the same media is delivered to customers who are authorized to use the product with 100 users or 10,000 users. In some cases, the distributor determines the number of authorized users at the time of sale, long after the media has been shipped from the manufacturer to the distributor. In all these cases, there is a need to permit use of the product only for the number of users that are authorized and for whom license fees are paid.
Further, predicting demand for a particular part number is usually difficult, if not impossible for the manufacturer, producer or distributor.
Several past approaches have addressed these problems. For example, there are a variety of copy protection mechanisms that prevent a licensed product from being copied at all, or prevent the product from being copied more than once. Although once popular, copy protection mechanisms have gone out of favor, because many end users have learned how to defeat them. And for other end users, they are a nuisance.
Some software products require the use of a license key to unlock and activate the product. However, in some markets, customers view license keys as problematic and annoying. Large institutional customers, for example, often have thousands of users who are using many different licensed products in their internal operations. In such a scenario, preventing loss or disclosure of numerous license keys is a serious problem.
Other problems arise from the characteristics of the parties involved in distributing licensed products. For some licensed products, such as computer software, it is common for the product to reach end users through a distributor or retailer who is not affiliated with the manufacturer or developer. From the distributor's perspective, customers are a critical asset, and information that identifies customers is considered highly confidential. Such distributors do not wish to disclose the identity of their customers to the software manufacturer or developer.
Based on the foregoing, there is a clear need to have a licensing manager mechanism to regulate the reproduction of a licensed product.
There is also a need to provide a licensing manager mechanism that can be used by a customer or distributor in an anonymous manner.
There is also a need to provide a licensing manager mechanism that is easy to use and convenient to use, especially when the product is distributed to end users by distributors who are not intimately familiar with the product.
There is also a need to provide such a licensing manager mechanism that supports one part number for the licensed product, or a small number of part numbers, so that the number of different products in inventory is minimized.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The foregoing needs and objectives, and other needs and objectives that will become apparent from the following description, are fulfilled and achieved by the present invention, which comprises, in one aspect, a method for regulating use of a licensed product, comprising the steps of registering a sale of the licensed product by storing sales information, in which the sales information uniquely identifies a customer and the licensed product licensed thereto; generating access information uniquely associated with the customer and the sales information; in response to receiving a request from the customer to activate the licensed product, in which the request contains the access information, generating key information based on the sales information, in which the key information comprises an encrypted representation of information identifying the customer, and the licensed product licensed thereto; and allowing the customer to use the licensed product only when the customer provides key information matching the sales information.
One feature of this aspect is that the step of allowing the customer to use the licensed product comprises the step of allowing the customer to install and use the licensed product only when the customer provides key information matching the sales information. In another feature, the step of registering a sale includes the step of storing the sales information in a server in a network, and further including the step of communicating the key information over the network to the customer at a location remote from the server.
Another feature is that the step of registering a sale includes the step of storing the sales information in a server in a network, and further including the step -
5
of communicating the access information over the network. Yet another feature is that the step of generating the key information further includes the step of verifying that the access information matches the sales information.
According to another feature, the step of registering the sale of the licensed product includes the steps of receiving the sales information over a network at a web application program of a web server remote from the customer; in response to receiving the sales information, generating access information based on the sales information using the web application program; creating a client account in a database of the web server based on the sales information; and storing at least a portion of the access information in the client account. A related feature is that the step of generating access information includes the steps of generating a product serial number based on the sales information; and generating a login identifier, wherein the login identifier is used by the customer to connect to the web application over the network.
Another related feature is that the step of generating a login identifier includes the steps of generating a user identifier that is based on a root domain name of a client associated with the customer; and generating a password; in which a combination of the user identifier and password is used by the client to connect to the web application over the network. Yet another related feature is that the step of generating a product serial number includes the step of generating a product seria
Brandt Carl I.
Chung Chang Y.
enCommerce, Inc.
Hickman Palermo & Truong & Becker LLP
Trammell James R.
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