Patent ID: 9600641
Date: 2017-03-21
CPC Classifications: G06F,G07C,H04L

Claim:
1. A computer data processing system configured for user permissions based control of pooled feature-on-demand (FoD) activation keys, the system comprising: a plurality of hardware components of the computer data processing system, the hardware components including at least one feature configured for activation according to FoD; a memory of the computer data processing system, the memory comprising a pool of multiple different authorization codes for access by different end users in activating different features of the hardware components using FoD; and, an FoD activation module executing in the memory of the computer data processing system, the module comprising computer program code enabled upon execution to respond to an FoD request to activate one of the features by a particular one of the end users by determining whether or not a pre-defined code usage policy permits the particular one of the end users to use a pooled one of the authorization codes and in response to a determination that the pre-defined code usage policy permits the particular one of the end users to use a pooled one of the authorization codes, determining if a FoD activation key already exists for activating the one of the features and if not, transmitting a request to a remotely disposed key server requesting generation by the key server of an FoD activation key with the pooled one of the authorization codes and activating the one of the features with the FoD activation key subsequent to receiving the generated FoD activation key from the key server.