Patent ID: 7725929

Claim:
A method for acquiring access to an application having a locked feature, the method comprising: launching an application on a computing device, the application comprising a locked portion and a non-locked portion, wherein the locked portion of the application is not accessible to the computing device when the application runs on the computing device unless a key for enabling access to said locked portion is present on the computing device, and wherein the non-locked portion of the application is accessible without the key; determining whether the key for enabling access to said locked portion of the application is present on the computing device; and when the key is present, running the application on the computing device in an unlocked mode of operation where the non-locked and locked portions of the application are accessible by the computing device, and when the key is not present, running the application on the computing device in a restricted mode of operation where the non-locked portion of the application is accessible and the locked portion is not accessible by the computing device.