US 7,734,550 B1Granted

Method and system for identifying the controlling license for installed software

AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation

InventorsJim Bennett, Peter Oosterhof, Aidan Hughes, Anzhelika Nishanova

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Abstract

In accordance with other aspects, the present invention relates to a system for identifying a license for a first software product of a first type installed on a computer system having at least one other software product of the first type installed on the computer system. The system includes a first license associated with the first software product; at least one second license associated with the at least one other software product installed on the computer; and a license module that compares the first license and the at least one second license and selects one of the first and second licenses based on predetermined criteria. Methods for identifying and displaying a license for a first software product of a first type installed on a computer system are also disclosed.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

a processor;
and
a memory having computer executable instructions stored thereon, the computer executable instructions programmed to:
provide a first encrypted software license for a first version of a software product on a computing system, wherein the first encrypted software license has a rank;
receive a request to access a software license for the first version of the software product;
prior to providing user access to any software license for the first version of the software product:
obtain, at the software licensing module, a product identifier that indicates a software product type of the first version of the software product;
search the computing system and identifying at least a second version of the software product that includes the same software product type indicated by the product identifier;
based on the identified second version of the software product, identify a second encrypted software license stored on the computer system, wherein the second encrypted software license is for the identified second version of the software product, wherein the second encrypted software license has a rank;
compare the rank of the first encrypted software license to the rank of the second encrypted software license to determine which of the first encrypted software license and the second encrypted software license includes a higher ranked license and to determine which of the first encrypted software license and the second encrypted software license includes a lesser ranked license;
decrypt the higher ranked license;
and
after the decryption, provide user access to the decrypted higher ranked license while not providing access to the lesser ranked license.

10 more elements

A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing a first encrypted software license for a first version of a software product on a computing system, wherein the first encrypted software license has a rank;
receiving a request to access a software license for the first version of the software product;
obtaining, at the software licensing module, a product identifier that indicates a software product type of the first version of the software product;
searching the computing system and identifying at least a second version of the software product that includes the same software product type indicated by the product identifier;
based on the identified second version of the software product, identifying a second encrypted software license stored on the computer system, wherein the second encrypted software license is for the identified second version of the software product, wherein the second encrypted software license has a rank;
comparing the rank of the first encrypted software license to the rank of the second encrypted software license to determine which of the first encrypted software license and the second encrypted software license includes a higher ranked license and to determine which of the first encrypted software license and the second encrypted software license includes a lesser ranked license;
decrypting the higher ranked license;
and
providing user access to the decrypted higher ranked license while not providing access to the lesser ranked license.

6 more elements

A computer-readable storage medium having computer executable instructions, the instructions comprising:

providing a first encrypted software license for a first version of a software product on a computing system, wherein the first encrypted software license has a rank;
receiving a request to access a software license for the first version of the software product;
obtaining, at the software licensing module, a product identifier that indicates a software product type of the first version of the software product;
searching the computing system and identifying at least a second version of the application that includes the same software product type indicated by the product identifier;
based on the identified second version of the application, identifying a second encrypted software license stored on the computer system, wherein the second encrypted software license is for the identified second version of the software product, wherein the second encrypted software license is associated with a rank;
comparing the rank of the first encrypted software license to the rank of the second encrypted software license to determine which of the first encrypted software license and the second encrypted software license includes a higher ranked license and to determine which of the first encrypted software license and the second encrypted software license includes a lesser ranked license;
decrypting the higher ranked license;
and
providing user access to the decrypted higher ranked license while not providing access to the lesser ranked license.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.