Patent ID: 7571143
Filing Date: 2009-08-04
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A software pay-per-use (PPU) system comprising: a first computer having one or more PPU software products; a metrics gathering tool associated with each of the one or more PPU software products, wherein each metrics gathering tool monitors and measures usage data for its associated one or more PPU software products; a software metering agent residing on the first computer, wherein the software metering agent collects the measured usage data from each metrics gathering tool associated with the one or more PPU software products and collects usage data for all of the one or more PPU software products registered with the software metering agent on the first computer; a utility metering appliance connected to a plurality of computers, including the first computer, through a network, wherein the utility metering appliance receives the collected usage data from the software metering agent residing on the first computer and other software metering agents residing on other computers connected to the utility metering appliance through the network; a usage collection and billing system, wherein the usage collection and billing system periodically receives the collected usage data from the utility metering appliance and processes the collected usage data to generate billing information for PPU software products on the plurality of computers connected to the utility metering appliance through the network; and a registry for identifying all of the one or more PPU software products registered with the software metering agent on the first computer, wherein the registry includes identifiers for all of the one or more PPU software products registered with the software metering agent on the first computer and a pathname for each software metering agent associated with each of the one or more PPU software products.