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:
Sep. 17, 2002
Filed:
May. 21, 1999
Steven C. Glassman, Mountain View, CA (US);
Mark S. Manasse, San Francisco, CA (US);
Compaq Computer Corporation, Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
An electronic commerce system and method enforces a license agreement for content on an open network by restricting the number of consumers that can concurrently access the content. A consumer initially acquires vendor scrip, either from a broker or the vendor itself. The consumer presents the vendor scrip to the vendor along with a request to access the content. In response, the vendor gathers information about the consumer to determine whether the consumer belongs to the class allowed to access the content. The information may be gathered from the scrip or from other sources. If the consumer belongs to the class, then the vendor determines if a license to access the content is available. Generally, a license is available if the number of other consumers having licenses to access the content is less than the maximum specified in the license agreement. If no licenses are available, the vendor provides the consumer with an estimate of when a license will be available. If a license is available, the vendor directs the consumer to obtain license scrip which allows the consumer to access the content. The license scrip expires after a relatively brief period of time. When the consumer uses the license scrip to access the content, the vendor provides the consumer with new license scrip having a later expiration time.