International Business Machines Corporation

Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Clair L Ewert

Lonny R Olson-Williams

Carol Ann Egan

James R Fritsch

Robert Joseph Padzieski

Jeffrey Alan Block

John David Gressett

Bonita Kay Chaney

Suellen Kae Birkholz

A method, a data structure, a computer program product and a computer-readable medium for handling license agreements for multiple software packages in a computer system, each software package being identified by a unique package ID and comprising one or more components. One embodiment provides a method comprising: providing a plurality of document files, each document file comprising one or more text elements; providing a plurality of manifest files, each manifest file indicating at least one corresponding document file of the plurality of document files and comprising a unique package ID designating a corresponding software package; extracting a specific unique package ID from a specific software package; determining a corresponding manifest file from the plurality of manifest files on the basis of the extracted unique package ID; determining the at least one corresponding document file of the plurality of document files on the basis of the determined corresponding manifest file; and combining the one or more text elements comprised in the at least one determined corresponding document file to build a license agreement for the specific software package.

Mechanisms for handling software license agreements on multi-user system

Method and apparatus for upgrading a software on a customer system are provided. In one embodiment, a method for upgrading a software on a customer system comprises: receiving, by a supplier system, a software inventory from the customer system; verifying one or more business contracts for the software inventory utilizing one or more databases connected to the supplier system; and determining one or more software upgrade releases for the software inventory utilizing a product topology database connected to the supplier system.

Method and apparatus for automating software upgrades

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Clair L Ewert