Patent ID: 7069595
Filing Date: 2006-06-27
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of controlling use of a digitally encoded product on a data processing system including the step of: providing, to the data processing system, a product license certificate indicative of an authorization granted to use the product, wherein the license certificate identifies basic conditions of use of the product as initially authorized by a provider of the product and a list of allowed changes to the basic conditions of use of the product, monitoring operation of the data processing system for detecting a condition of use of the product, providing reconciliation information indicative of the detected condition of use over a corresponding period of time to a controller system, and automatically updating licensing information stored on the controller system, and indicative of a licensing condition of the product, according to the reconciliation information, wherein updating licensing information comprises modifying a previous licensing condition for the corresponding period of time to be a modified licensing condition that corresponds to the detected condition of use of the product as identified by the reconciliation information, and wherein the modified licensing condition governs a relationship between a user of the product and a provider of the product for the corresponding period of time.