Patent ID: 7716348
Filing Date: 2010-05-11
Classification: G06F,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A system for balancing a distribution of allocations for protected software over a communication network according to a license policy, the system comprising: at least one client computer coupled to the communication network for requesting authorizations to use the protected software; and a pool of license servers coupled to the communication network, each license server in the pool is programmed for managing a distribution of allocations for at least one client computer coupled to the communication network to use the protected software; the pool of license servers including a current leader server programmed for updating the distribution of allocations to add at least one additional allocation to a particular license server if that particular license server has an insufficient number of allocations, wherein each license server in the pool can directly communicate with the at least one client computer coupled to the communication network, and wherein each license server in the pool manages the distribution of allocations substantially in the same manner as the other license servers in the pool; each license server further including a borrowing threshold and programmed for determining whether the particular license server did not have a sufficient number of allocations by dividing an allocations-in-use value for that particular license server by a total allocation value for that particular license server and determining if a quotient of the division is greater than the borrowing threshold.