Method and apparatus for electronic licensing

专利名称：Method and apparatus for electronic

licensing

发明人：Cliff D. Ross,Neil W. Taylor,Kevin W.

Kingdon,Howard R. Davis,Drew Major

申请号：US08/192166申请日：19940204公开号：US05553143A公开日：19960903

摘要：The present invention allows for the electronic management and enforcementof software licenses. The present invention can be used in a network or non-networkenvironment to facilitate product licensing and upgrades. Further, the present inventionaccommodates the use of compact disc read-only memory (CD ROM) product

distribution. Further, the present invention can retain useful, after-market information.The present invention provides the ability to implement a license policy. Further, thelicense policy can be implemented or modified without requiring a new version of theassociated product. The present invention provides the ability to create electroniclicenses. Further, the present invention provides the ability to extract and transferlicenses from an inventory of licenses to a final distribution media. Licenses can betransferred to a reseller in batches. A reseller can extract unused licenses from thesebatches to generate licenses. An optional companion license can be generated. Installedlicenses can be managed and enforced by the present invention. Further, Upgrades (e.g.,version and connections) can be accomplished independent of the product. Licensedocuments can be used to retain information related to a license. Portions of a license

document can be encrypted using a private key and message digests. The encryptedresult can be stored in the license document, and examined to validate a license. Licensedocuments can be created in batches. One or more licenses in a batch of licenses can beenabled to create a software license.

申请人：NOVELL, INC.

代理机构：Snell & Wilmer, LP.

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