System for licensing to use software products

A system for licensing to use software products which are encrypted by a software vendor, the system comprising:

• a software vendor unit for supplying a product-medium which contains a plurality of encrypted software products and for supplying a wholesaler's sales-medium, said software vendor unit comprising
• vendor information storage means for storing product information and wholesaler's name and
• wholesaler's sales-medium creating means for creating the wholesaler's sales-medium based on the product information and the wholesaler's name stored in said information storage means;
• a wholesaler unit for supplying a retailer's sales-medium which contains the product information and retailer's name, based on the wholesaler's sales-medium provided by said software vendor unit;
• a retailer unit, being provided with the retailer's sales-medium from said wholesaler unit, for supplying an end-user with a key to decrypt one of the encrypted software products, said retailer unit comprising
• key generating means for generating the key based on the product information stored in the retailer's sales-medium.

A method of licensing to use software products which are encrypted by a software vendor and finally supplied to an end-user via a wholesaler and a retailer, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) supplying the end-user with a product-medium which contains a plurality of software products being encrypted;
• (b) creating a wholesaler's sales-medium based on the product information and wholesaler's name;
• (c) supplying the wholesaler's sales-medium to the wholesaler;
• (d) creating a retailer's sales-medium which contains the product information and retailer's name, based on the wholesaler's sales-medium;
• (e) supplying the retailer's sales-medium to the retailer;
• and
• (f) generating a key for the end-user to decrypt one of the encrypted software products based on the product information stored in the retailer's sales-medium.