License management system

(54) LICENSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

(75) Inventors: Kazunari Sekigawa, Nagano (JP);

Tomomi Sato, Nagano (JP); Supriya
K. Patel, Bangalore (IN); Sanjay D.
Sankolli, Bangalore (IN)

(73) Assignee: Shinko Electric Industries Co., Ltd.,

Nagano (JP)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 09/202,189

(22) PCT Filed: Jul. 15, 1997

(86) PCT No.: PCT/JP97/02460

§ 371 (c)(1),

(2), (4) Date: Jun. 4, 1999

(87) PCT Pub. No.: WO99/04354 PCT Pub. Date: Jan. 28, 1999

Paul Krill, "Wifinet Utility Reduces NetWare License Requirements," Infoworld, Mar. 13, 1995, p. 47.* Christopher Hall and Carey Tews, "FileWave 2.0 Shines with simplicity and easy administration", Infoworld, Oct. 24, 1994, Infoworld, p. 139.*

Anonymous, "Cost Confusion Over Licensing Revamp", Computer Finance, No. 31, May 2, 1994.* West, Lawrence A Jr., "Researching The Costs of Information Systems", Journal of Management Information Systems: JMIS, vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 75-107, 1994.* Masson, Robert, "Parellel and Almost Personal", Machine Design, vol. 67, No. 8, Apr. 20, 1995.*

Primary Examiner—John W. Hayes

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Staas & Halsey LLP

A license management system for software which drives a single computer or a plurality of computers includes: an application program for requesting a decision of the number of license which it needs to drive itself and for receiving issuance of the license; a number of license decision unit for determining the necessary number of licenses in accordance with the request from the application program; and a license management unit for issuing the number of licenses which was determined by the number of license decision unit. Further, the number of license decision unit has means for determining the number of licenses based on the following multi-nominal function, LK=f (xl, x2, . . . , xn), where, LK is the number of licenses, and xl to xn are parameters which are needed to determine the number of licenses. According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a license management system enabling issuance of a license in which the sales strategy of a software maker was considered.

68 Claims, 37 Drawing Sheets

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

5,204,897 A * 4/1993 Wyman 380/4

5,230,051 A * 7/1993 Quan 395/700

5,260,999 A 11/1993 Wyman

5,375,206 A 12/1994 Hunter et al.

5,390,297 A * 2/1995 Barber et al 395/200

5,438,508 A * 8/1995 Wyman 364/401

5,579,222 A * 11/1996 Bains et al 395/712

5,619,656 A * 4/1997 Graf 395/200.11

5,671,412 A * 9/1997 Christiano 395/615

5,752,041 A * 5/1998 Fosdick 395/712

5,754,763 A * 5/1998 Bereiter 395/187.01

5.758.068 A * 5/1998 Brandt et al 395/186

5.758.069 A * 5/1998 Olsen 395/187.01

5,825,883 A * 10/1998 Archibald et al 380/25

5,864,620 A * 1/1999 Pettitt 380/4

5,905,860 A * 5/1999 Olsen et al 395/187.01

5,930,357 A * 7/1999 Fukui 380/4

5,940,504 A * 8/1999 Griswold 380/4

5,991,876 A * 11/1999 Johnson et al 713/200

6,021,438 A * 2/2000 Duwoori et al 709/224

6,023,766 A * 2/2000 Yamamura 705/59

* cited by examiner