(19) United States
(12) Patent Application Publication (io) Pub. No.: US 2005/0278716 Al
Koppen et al. (43) Pub. Date: Dec. 15,2005
(54) DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (DRM) LICENSE MANAGER
(75) Inventors: Eckhart Koppen, Tampere (FI); Timo Vataja, Tampere (FI); Simo Kivimaki, Tampere (FI)
Correspondence Address:
FOLEY & LARDNER
321 NORTH CLARK STREET
SUITE 2800
CHICAGO, IL 60610-4764 (US) (73) Assignee: Nokia Corporation
(21) Appl. No.: 10/868,299
(22) Filed: Jun. 14, 2004
Publication Classification (51) Int. CI.7 G06F 9/44; G06F 9/445
A method, device, and system including a digital rights management (DRM) license manager to protect software applications from unauthorized use. The DRM license manager system binds essential application data to a software license. This binding is achieved by adding an encryption key to a software license and encrypting the application data with that key. The essential application data is any kind of data which is required for proper operation of the program, such as media files, game levels or state tables. The DRM license manager system performs a check and decrypt operation of the essential application data during program run time. It requires that the license is available on the system. It also ensures that the decryption operation can only take place if the conditions defined in the license are met.
