Patent ID: 7565325

Claim:
A method for distributing a plurality of software licenses corresponding to a plurality of application files to a plurality of license controllers which are interconnected via a communication channel, wherein each of the license controllers is located at a corresponding site where they receive usage requests from a plurality of users, the method comprising: allocating a default subset of the plurality of software licenses to each of said license controllers; and each of said license controllers authorizing usage of an application file corresponding to one of said software licenses comprising: processing a usage request received from a user; authorizing usage of a corresponding application file when the number of software licenses presently authorized is less than the number of software licenses allocated to this license controller; and balancing the number of software licenses allocated to each of said license controllers, comprising: calculating, in each of said license controllers, an application file usage statistic; distributing the application file usage statistic among said license controllers; and reallocating the plurality of software licenses among said license controllers according to said application file usage statistics distributed among said license controllers.