Source: http://patents.com/us-10437964.html
Timestamp: 2019-10-17 11:15:43
Document Index: 364992353

Matched Legal Cases: ['art.4', 'Application No. 20044099', 'Application No. 093126908', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 1921', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 1', 'Application No. 1', 'Application No. 1', 'Application No. 1', 'Application No. 1', 'Application No. 1', 'Application No. 1', 'Application No. 1', 'Application No. 164074', 'Application No. 169716', 'Application No. 169718', 'Application No. 170668', 'Application No. 1768', 'Application No. 1768', 'Application No. 1769', 'Application No. 1769', 'Application No. 1770', 'Application No. 1770', 'Application No. 1770', 'Application No. 1921', 'Application No. 1921', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 09006972', 'Application No. 09006972', 'Application No. 93126908', 'Application No. 093126908', 'Application No. 093126908', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 200410088294', 'Application No. 200410088294', 'Application No. 200410088294', 'Application No. 2004131031', 'Application No. 2004216596', 'Application No. 2004216596', 'Application No. 2004', 'Application No. 2004', 'Application No. 2004', 'Application No. 200504474', 'Application No. 200504475', 'Application No. 200504508', 'Application No. 200504508', 'Application No. 200505257', 'Application No. 200510089514', 'Application No. 200510089514', 'Application No. 200510089514', 'Application No. 200510092139', 'Application No. 200510092139', 'Application No. 200510092139', 'Application No. 200510092141', 'Application No. 200510092141', 'Application No. 200510092142', 'Application No. 200510092142', 'Application No. 200510092146', 'Application No. 2005120363', 'Application No. 2005120363', 'Application No. 2005125831', 'Application No. 2005125837', 'Application No. 2005125839', 'Application No. 200680018095', 'Application No. 2512', 'Application No. 541299', 'Application No. 541300', 'Application No. 541301', 'Application No. 0401003526', 'Application No. 0401003526', 'Application No. 04021618', 'Application No. 04021618', 'Application No. 04', 'Application No. 04', 'Application No. 04102463', 'Application No. 04102463', 'Application No. 07795391', 'Application No. 2482182', 'Application No. 1921']

US Patent # 1,043,7964. Programming interface for licensing - Patents.com
United States Patent 10,437,964
Gunyakti , et al. October 8, 2019
Gunyakti; Caglar (Sammamish, WA), Hsu; Wen-Pin Scott (Redmond, WA), Zhang; Ning (Sammamish, WA)
Gunyakti; Caglar
Hsu; Wen-Pin Scott
Family ID: 1000004328181
10/692,868
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Primary Examiner: Casey; Alexis M
1. An apparatus comprising: at least one computer processor; a license store that stores license files for different software products, said license files including licenses to the different software products specifying rights and conditions on the exercise of said rights; and memory coupled to the at least one computer processor, the memory comprising executable instructions that, based on execution by the at least one computer processor, cause the at least one computer processor to automatically: expose an application programming interface that provides access by application programs to license information associated with the different software products in said license files in said license store; receive from an application program via said application programming interface a request comprising an indication of a software product and a request to exercise a right granted in a license to the software product in said license files; check whether the license for the indicated software product is valid; based at least on the license for the indicated software product being valid, obtaining from said license store rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request; and provide, based at least on receiving the request via said application programming interface, the rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request to the application program without implementing any mechanism for granting or denying the rights granted in the license for the software product, wherein the instructions for checking whether the license for the indicated software product is valid further comprises instructions for determining that the license for the indicated software product is bound to the software product by determining whether the rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request can be exercised based on whether the rights are bound to a machine executing the application program from which the request was received, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for establishing a context for asynchronous processing and processing the request from the application program, asynchronously, in accordance with the established context, and wherein the executable instructions are executed by an operating system.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a trust store that stores data used in a license validation process in a tamper-resistant manner.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions for checking that the license for the indicated software product is valid includes instructions for determining, via a conflict rule, which license to obtain from a plurality of licenses indicated by said license files that are stored in the license store for the software product, the plurality of licenses including the license to the software product.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request comprise an indication of a validity of the rights granted in the license for the software product.
5. A method comprising: exposing an application programming interface that provides access by application programs to license information in a license store storing license files for different software products, said license files including licenses to the different software products specifying rights and conditions on the exercise of said rights; receiving from an application program via said application programming interface a request comprising an indication of a software product having a license file in the license store and a request to exercise a right granted in a license to the software product in said license files; checking whether the license for the indicated software product is valid; based at least on the license for the indicated software product being valid, obtaining from said license store rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request; providing, based at least on receiving the request via said application programming interface, the rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request to the application program without implementing any mechanism for granting or denying the rights granted in the license for the software product, wherein checking whether the license for the indicated software product is valid further comprises determining that the license for the indicated software product is bound to the software product by determining whether the rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request can be exercised based on whether the rights are bound to a machine executing the application program from which the request was received; establishing a context for asynchronous processing; and processing the request from the application program, asynchronously, in accordance with the established context, wherein the method is executed by an operating system.
6. The method of claim 5, further comprising storing data used in a license validation process in a trust store in tamper-resistant manner.
7. The method of claim 5, wherein checking that the license for the indicated software product is valid includes determining, via a conflict rule, which license to obtain from a plurality of licenses in said license files that are stored in the license store for the software product, the plurality of licenses including the license to the software product.
8. The method of claim 5, wherein the rights and conditions of the exercise of said rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request comprise an indication of a validity of the rights granted in the license for the software product.
9. A computer-readable memory device comprising executable instructions that, based on execution by at least one computer processor, cause the at least one computer processor to: expose an application programming interface that allows application programs to request license information contained in a license store storing license files for different software products, said license files including licenses to the different software products specifying at least one right; receive from an application program at least via said application programming interface a request comprising an indication of a software product having a license file in the license store and a request to exercise a right granted in a license to the software product in said license files; check whether the license for the indicated software product is valid; based at least on the license for the indicated software product being valid, obtain from said license store the at least one right granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request; provide, based at least on receiving the request via said application programming interface, the at least one right granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request to the application program without implementing any mechanism for granting or denying the rights granted in the license for the software product, wherein checking whether the license for the indicated software product is valid further comprises determining that the license for the indicated software product is bound to the software product by determining whether the rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request can be exercised based on whether the rights are bound to a machine executing the application program from which the request was received; establishing a context for asynchronous processing; and processing the request from the application program, asynchronously, in accordance with the established context, wherein the instructions are executed by an operating system.
10. The memory device of claim 9, further comprising instructions for storing data used in a license validation process in a trust store in tamper-resistant manner.
11. The memory device of claim 9, wherein instructions for checking that the license for the indicated software product is valid includes instructions for determining, via a conflict rule, which license to obtain from a plurality of licenses in said license files that are stored in the license store for the software product, the plurality of licenses including the license to the software product.
12. The memory device of claim 9, wherein instructions to check whether the license for the indicated software product is valid comprises instructions that further cause the at least one processor to determine whether the rights granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request can be exercised based on whether rights are bound to a class of machines of which a machine executing the application program from which the request was received is a member.
13. The memory device of claim 9, wherein the license files further specify at least one condition on the exercise of said at least one right.
14. The memory device of claim 9, wherein the check further comprises checking whether the license for the indicated software product is bound to the software product.
15. The memory device of claim 9, wherein the obtaining the at least one right further comprises determining whether the license for the indicated software product is valid and bound to the software product, and obtaining the at least one right and conditions of the exercise of said at least one right granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request when the at least one right and conditions of the exercise of said at least one right granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request is valid and bound to the software product.
16. The memory device of claim 15, wherein providing the at least one right based at least on receiving the request, further comprises providing the at least one right and the conditions of the exercise of said at least one right granted in the license for the software product indicated in the request or the information from the license to the software product indicated in the request to the application software without implementing any mechanism for granting or denying the rights granted in the license for the software product.
Commercially-produced software has traditionally been made available under a license that defines the permissible terms of the software's use. When the practice of software licensing first began, the license generally took the form of a legal document that defined the user's rights with respect to the software. Such a document relied upon the legal system for enforcement. It has since become desirable for licenses to be enforced electronically--i.e., it is desirable that a computer program contain code that actively discourages or prevents use of the software in a manner that is contrary to the license.
The present invention provides a software licensing Application Programming Interface (API) or callable interface that provides certain licensing functions for use by software products. A license service or licensing component performs functions relating to the use of licenses, and exposes these functions to software products through the API. The service performs functions such as obtaining licenses, storing and managing licenses, protecting licenses from tampering, evaluating a license's validity, and evaluating whether a license is correctly bound to the machine and/or software product on which it is used. The software is able to make use of this functionality by calling the methods of the API.
In a typical use of the API, a software product calls an "open" API method or handle-opening component in order to obtain a unique handle that is used by the license service to identify the application. The software product then calls a "consume right" API method or right-consumption component. "Consume," in this context, means the exercise of a specified right. The call to the "consume right" method is parameterized by the software product's handle, and by the name of the right to be consumed. The license service then attempts to locate one or more valid, correctly bound licenses that contains the named right. If no such license exists, then the software product is notified of the failure. If such licenses exist, then the right is bound to one of the licenses, and the calling software product is notified of the binding. In such a case, the software product knows that the right exists, and can perform whatever functions are associated with this right.
In a preferred embodiment, the license service does not define what the software can or cannot do under the right, or enforce substantive constraints on the use of the software. Rather, the license service manages the licenses in such a way that a software product can determine by calling the API whether a right does, or does not, exist, so that the software can behave accordingly. For example, a right may be called "run," indicating that the user has the right to run the software product. The software product can use the API to determine whether there is a valid (and correctly bound, and non-expired) right to run the software. However, if the API call returns with an indication that there is no right to run the software, it is up to the software to cease operation or take some other action based on the non-existence of this right.
A right may be associated with information, which becomes available after a successful call to the "consume right" method. For example, a given software product may have individual rules about when it is permissible to edit, print, save, etc., and these rules can be stored in the license that contains the right. The API provides a "get information" method or information-retrieval component that allows this information to be retrieved from the license.
The invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Various terms, including component, method, service, interface, module, routine, and program, are used interchangeably to refer to a group of computer-executable instructions stored in a computer-readable medium. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network or other data transmission medium. In a distributed computing environment, program modules and other data may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.
Computer 110 typically includes a variety of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 110 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removeable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CDROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by computer 110. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term "modulated data signal" means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media.
The manner in which API 208 is used by an application is described with reference to FIG. 3. Initially, the application makes an API call (302). Service 202 then processes the API call (304), and returns the result of the API call to the application 306. For example, an API call may request to exercise ("consume") a right granted in a license, or to retrieve information from a license. The application then receives the result of the API call, and determines, based on that result, what the application's behavior should be (308). In other words, software licensing service 202, in a preferred embodiment, does not enforce a license directly, but rather provides the infrastructure through which licenses can be managed and used. For example, if an application makes an API call to consume a right and service 202 determines that there is no valid license granting this right, service 202, in a preferred embodiment, does not prevent the application from running, but instead informs the application that the right is not available. Thus, the application can use its own mechanisms to determine what to do in response to the unavailability of the right. This facet of the API provides software vendors the flexibility to decide how the licensing infrastructure provided by service 202 should be used. In another implementation, application can be bound to licensing service functionality.
The SLOpen function opens a SL client context handle that must be used for all subsequent SL API calls. (Throughout the example API descriptions, "SL" shall refer to the software licensing service. Thus, the SL client context handle is the handle used by a client in communicating with the software licensing service.)
TABLE-US-00001 HRESULT SLOpen( CONST GUID* pguidApp, HSLC* phSLC );
TABLE-US-00002 HRESULT SLClose( HSLC hSLC );
The SLInstall function installs applications'licenses and registers applications'information.
TABLE-US-00003 HRESULT SLInstall( HSLC hSLC, CONST SL_PRODKEY* pAppPrdKey, DWORD dwNumOfApps, CONST GUID* pguidApps, DWORD dwNumOfLicFiles, PCWSTR ppszLicFiles[ ], BOOL bVerify );
TABLE-US-00004 typedef struct_tagSL_PRODKEY { DWORD cbSize; // Size of SL_PRODKEY structure DWORD dwVersion; // Version of SL_PRODKEY structure WCHAR szProdKey[MAX_PRODKEYSTR_SIZE+1]; SL_PRODKEY_TYPE eProdKeyType; // Type of Product key SL_CUSTOM_PRODKEY_INFO CustomPrdKeyInfo; // Customer product key info } SL_PRODKEY;
The eProdKeyType can be one of following values: SL_PRODKEY_CUSTOM SL_PRODKEY_MS2002 SL_PRODKEY_MS2003
TABLE-US-00005 typedef struct _tagSL_CUSTOM_PRODKEY_INFO DWORD dwSKUID; // Unique ID for specific SKU, for example Group ID in MS PID. DWORD dwSerialNumber; // unique serial number, e.g. channel + sequence number in MS PID. } SL_CUSTOM_PRODKEY_INFO;
TABLE-US-00006 HRESULT SLUninstall ( HSLC hSLC, CONST SL_PRODKEY* pAppPrdKey );
[in] See above definition in connection with SLInstall.
TABLE-US-00007 HRESULT SLConsumeRight( HSLC hSLC, PCWSTR pszRightName, SL_ASYNC_CONTEXT* pAsyncContext };
The SLInitializeAsyncContext function or asynchronous-context-initiator component initializes the asynchronous context for SLC functions to make asynchronous call.
TABLE-US-00008 HRESULT SLInitializeAsyncContext( SL_ASYNC_CONTEXT* pAsyncContext, // asynchronous context HANDLE hEvent, // event handle PVOID pvReserved // reserved, NULL };
TABLE-US-00009 HRESULT SLCancelAsyncCall( SL_ASYNC_CONTEXT* pAsyncContext, // asynchronous context BOOL fAbortCall // cancel immediately };
TABLE-US-00010 HRESULT SLCompleteAsyncCall( SL_ASYNC_CONTEXT* pAsyncContext, // asynchronous context HRESULT* phrAsyncCall // error code of the submitted asynchronous call };
TABLE-US-00011 Value Meaning S_OK The call was completed successfully. E_SLC_INVALID_ASYNC_CONTEXT The asynchronous call context is not valid. E_SLC_ASYNC_CALL_PENDING The call has not yet completed. E_SLC_CALL_CANCELLED The call was cancelled.
SLGetInformation
The SLGetLicenseInfo function is used to get a variety of information.
TABLE-US-00012 HRESULT SLGetInfomation( HSLC hSLC, // SL client context handle DWORD dwCategory, // The category of information to retrieve PCWSTR pszKeyName, // Name of the Key DWORD* pdwType, // Type of value SIZE_T* pcbValue, // Size of value PBYTE* ppbValue // Pointer to buffer of value );
TABLE-US-00013 Category Meaning SL_CAT_RIGHTDATA Get the information from bound right. The license has to be consumed successfully before getting these right data. SL_CAT_DYNAMICPROPERTY Get the information that is not in the license but calculating in the run-time. For example, RemainingGracePeriodDays. The right has to be consumed before calling. Name Meaning RemainingGracePeriodDays: DWORD The grace period is defined in out-of-box license. Once the application is installed, the time is counting down. Applications can check remaining grace period after they have consumed license. ActivationStatus: DWORD After applications consumed license, it can get consumed license type. The return value could be: SL_LIC_OOB The consumed license is out- of-box license. SL_LIC_ACQUIRED The consumed license is acquired license. SL_LIC_NONE No license is available. SL_CAT_SERVICEINFO Get the information that is not dependent on license. The caller can get this category of information without consuming license. Name Meaning SLVersion: DWORD The version of SL. 1.2.3.4 format. HWID: BINARY Current HWID SL_CAT_WINDOWSINFO Get information that is bound right property in Windows license. This is for Componentization. Windows License has been consumed by SL service and SL service keeps the bound right properties. SL_CAT_ENUMLICINFO When SLEnumLicenseis called and is succeed, the caller can query the information of enumerated license by using this category.
TABLE-US-00014 Value Meaning SL_DATATYPE_SZ Unicode string SL_DATATYPE_DWORD DWORD SL_DATATYPE_BINARY Binary
TABLE-US-00015 HRESULT SLAcquireLicense( HSLC hSLC, // SL client context handle PCWSTR pszProdKeyHash, // hash of product key PCWSTR pszPublishLicense, // string of publishing license. SL_ASYNC_CONTEXT* pAsyncContext );
TABLE-US-00016 HRESULT SLGenerateTextChallenge( HSLC hSLC, // SL client context handle PCWSTR pszProdKeyHash, // string of product key hash BOOL fSingleSession, // Single session only? PWSTR *ppszChallenge // Pointer to buffer to hold challenge text );
TABLE-US-00017 HRESULT SLDepositTextResponse( HSLC hSLC, // SL client context handle PCWSTR pszProdKeyHash, PWSTR pszResponse // Buffer containing response text );
TABLE-US-00018 HRESULT SLEnumLicense( HSLC hSLC, // SL client context handle CONST GUID* pguidApp, // application GUID DWORD dwIndex // index number );
E_SL_NO_MORE_DATA--No license at the specified index.
If SLEnumLicenses succeeded, the selected license information can be accessed by calling SLGetInformation and the category is SL_CAT_ENUMLICINFO
TABLE-US-00019 DWORD i=0; PBYTE pbProductPriority = NULL; PBYTE pbRemainingGracePeriodDays = NULL; for (i=0; ; i++) { EXIT_ON_ERROR(SLEnumLicense(hSLC, NULL, dwIndex)); if (E_SL_NO_MORE_DATA == SCODE(hr)) { hr = S_OK; break; } EXIT_ON_ERROR(SLGetInformation(hSLC, SL_CAT_ENUMLIC, "ProductPriority", &dwType, &cbProductPriority, &pbProductPriority)); EXIT_ON_ERROR(SLGetInformation(hSLC, SL_CAT_ENUMLIC, "RemainingGracePeriodDays", &dwType, &cbRemainingGracePeriodDays, &pbRemainingGracePeriodDays)); Exit: SLFreeMemory(pbProductPriority); SLFreeMemory(pbRemainingGracePeriodDays); }
TABLE-US-00020 VOID SLFreeMemory( PVOID pvMemblock, // pointer to memory );
A software product uses the API of the present invention for various purposes related to licensing, including the consumption of rights in a license, and the retrieval of data from the license. As noted above, the API allows the software to determine what rights are present in the license, but, preferably, it is up to the software to determine what to do with that information--e.g., grant or deny access to a feature, cease operation altogether, etc. The following description of FIGS. 4 and 5 show how the API of the present invention is used by a software product.
FIG. 4 shows an example process by which an application "consumes" a right. The application calls the SLConsumeRight method (402). As discussed above, the arguments to the SLConsumeRight function include the client handle assigned by the licensing service, and the name of the right (which is assigned by the vendor of the software to which the right pertains). The licensing service (service 202, shown in FIG. 2) receives the call (404). The service then locates licenses that contains the right, and checks the licenses bindings and validity. As noted above, the license is located in the license store; if there is more than one license that pertains to the application software to which the SLConsumeRight call pertains, then a priority rule may be used to select one of the applicable licenses. Checking the binding means determining that: (1) the license is bound to the product key of the application identified by the client handle; and (2) the license is bound to the machine on which the software is running (or to the group or class of machines of which the current machine is a member). Checking validity may include determining that the right has not expired (in the case of licenses that specify an expiration date), and that the maximum number of uses of the right is not exceeded (in the case where the license specifies a maximum number of times that the right may be used (i.e., "consumed")).
If the license and/or right are found to be correctly bound and valid (408), then the license is bound to the right requested in the API call (412). (It should be noted that "binding" a license to a machine, environment, and a product key means that the license specifies which machine(s) and product key it can be used with; "binding" a license to a right means that the consume function has been successful, and the right is being consumed from a particular license. Throughout this description, it will be clear from context which meaning of "binding" applies.) The API call then returns to the calling application and indicates that the call was successful (414). If the license and/or right has been found to be invalid, or not correctly bound to the machine, environment, or product ID, then the SLConsumeRight call returns to the calling application and indicates that the operation failed (410).
If the SLConsumeRight call returns with a failure, then the right specified in the call cannot be consumed from a license, and no information about that right will be available to the calling application. However, if the right is successfully consumed, then the application can use the binding of the right to the license to get information from the license about the right. For example, a license may contain a general right called "run," which indicates that the application may be run. However, for the "run" right, the license may contain more specific parameters about the usage of the application--e.g., the license may specify whether particular features of an application (e.g., print, edit, save, etc.) should be turned on or off, and may give specific parameters for the use of these features (e.g., the document can be saved only on machines that are running in a particular domain, or the print feature can only be used for thirty days, etc.). The SL API does not require any particular type of information to be associated with a right, but rather provides a mechanism whereby an application vendor can associate any type of information with a right, which can then be retrieved and interpreted by the application.
First, the application calls the SLGetInformation method on the bound right (502). The various types of information that can be retrieved are described above in connection with the description of the SLGetInformation method. The licensing service then receives the call (504). The service retrieves the requested information from the license file that contains the bound right (506). The licensing service then places this information in a buffer (508), and returns to the calling application (510). The calling application then reads the contents of the buffer, and performs whatever actions it deems necessary based on the retrieved information.
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