The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 26, 1996
Filed:
Dec. 14, 1992
Jeffrey E Bains, Madison, AL (US);
Willard W Case, Madison, AL (US);
Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL (US);
Abstract
An improved system for administration of license terms for a software product on the network, having an arrangement, for tracking software product usage, with one of the computers acting as a license server. This arrangement permits the license server (i) to identify the current set of nodes that are using the software product, (ii) to handle license data concerning conditions under which usage of the software product is permitted at any given node, and (iii) to determine whether at any given time the conditions would be satisfied if a given node is added to this set of nodes. The software product may thus include instructions to interface with the license server to cause enforcement of the license terms. The improvement, in one embodiment, to the system includes a policy server database maintained on each node, containing data specifying conditions under which usage of the software product is permitted on the corresponding node. Each node also has a policy server 'daemon' in association with the corresponding policy server database, for (i) communicating with the license server, (ii) interfacing with both the software product and the corresponding policy server database, (iii) enforcing the license terms applicable to the software product at a given local node on the basis of both license policy maintained at the local node as well as applicable data from the license server.