Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – Multiple computer communication using cryptography – Central trusted authority provides computer authentication
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-01
2001-07-10
Peeso, Thomas R. (Department: 2132)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
Multiple computer communication using cryptography
Central trusted authority provides computer authentication
C713S169000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06260141
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to systems for software registration, more specifically, systems which use software registration servers and require registration of each user and component hardware only once.
2. Description of Related Art
Early licensing schemes involved hardware specific licenses which allow software only to run on a specific machine. As personal computers have become the norm, current licensing schemes are typically user specific licenses, which allow a predetermined number of users to operate the software at a particular time. Typically, these user specific licenses are still limited to certain hardware. Many current software registration systems require a separate license number for each user/hardware combination. Further, most software registration systems are specific for each software manufacturer, requiring multiple identifications of a user and/or hardware. However, the same registration procedure cannot be used for all of the available licensing arrangements and all software product manufacturers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is therefore directed to software registration systems which substantially overcomes one or more of the problems due to the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a flexible, universal, secure software registration system.
At least one of the above and other objects may be realized by providing a method of software license control based on independent software registration servers including creating a secret/public key pair for a user, connecting to a software registration server, sending the user's public key to the software registration server and receiving the public key of the software registration server, registering a user once per person to the software registration server and receiving partial user-ID file that includes user information encrypted by the user public key and digitally signed by software registration server, attaching the user secret/public key pair and the public key of the user's software registration server to the partial user-ID file, registering a user's computer hardware once for each computer hardware to said software registration server and receiving a license file that includes computer hardware information encrypted by user public key and digitally signed by software registration server secret key, and registering a software product to said software registration server and receiving an updated license file which now includes the registered software product information in addition to the computer hardware information.
The method may further include distributing software product included in the license file. The method may include validating software product usage license including asking the user software license control program on user computer hardware whether the user has usage license for the software product for the specific computer hardware, and stopping the software product from running if the answer is “no”. The software product usage license may be given to a specific computer hardware of a specific user, to a specific user for any computer hardware, or to a specific computer hardware for any user.
The method may include storing user information, CPU information and software product usage license information in a software registration server database. The method may include replicating the software registration server database to a central software registration server database for backup purpose and for cross software registration server function.
The method may include registering, by software product manufacturers, software product information for software products to a central software registration server. The registered software product information may include at least one of product ID, price, and prerequisite software. The method may include distributing the software product information from the central software registration server to all software registration servers. The method may further include selecting, by a user, a software product from the registered software product list.
The method may include connecting software registration server before having a license file for an operating system and a network program. The method may include providing a limited license file for the operating system and network program.
There may be a plurality of software registration servers and the connecting may include selecting a software registration server from said plurality of software registration servers. Alternatively, the central software registration server may be the only software registration server and is used during the connecting
The creating may be performed by the user's computer hardware or by the software registration server.
At least one of the above and other object may be realized by providing a software license control system including a central software registration server receiving software product information from any software manufacturer, a software registration server receiving the software product information from the central software registration server, and a connection between a user and said software registration system which provides the software registration server with user registration, hardware registration, and software registration, the software registration creating a license file based on these registrations.
The software registration server may include a plurality of software registration servers, all receiving the software product information from the central software registration server, and the connection selecting a software registration server from the plurality of software registration servers.
These and other objects ofthe present invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way ofillustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5490216 (1996-02-01), Richardson, III
patent: 5553143 (1996-09-01), Ross et al.
patent: 5568552 (1996-10-01), Davis
Bruce Schneier “Applied Cryptography”, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Second Edition, 1996, pp. 584-587.
Simson Garfinkel “PGP: Pretty Good Privacy”, O'Reilly and Associates, Jan., 1995, entire book.
Jones Volentine PLLC
Peeso Thomas R.
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