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:
Mar. 04, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 12, 1996
Donald E. Carroll, Austin, TX (US);
Dell U.S.A., L.P., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
Method and computer for implementing a technique that disables all the software on a disk until the user agrees to a software contract. In a departure from the art, the present invention modifies a boot record of the disk which contains the software to be protected. The boot record, which contains a loader code and disk partition data, is modified to make the rest of the disk virtually unusable or unreadable and to prompt the user for acceptance of the contract terms. If the user does accept the contract terms, the boot record is re-modified to contain conventional loader code as well as correct partition data. The computer is then rebooted and operates in a normal, conventional, manner.