Patent ID: 7315904

Claim:
A method for arbitrating the allocation of a device resource on a device, the method comprising: receiving a request from a requesting application that requests allocation of the device resource; determining that the device resource is owned by an owning application; associating owner information with requester information to form an arbitration request, wherein the owner information comprises a first privilege status which defines the priority of the owning application and the requester information comprises a second privilege status which defines the priority of the requesting application; arbitrating the arbitration request based on the priorities defined by the first and second privilege status to produce an arbitration decision maintaining ownership of the device resource by the owning application when the arbitration decision determines the first privilege status is greater than the second privilege status; and relinquishing ownership of the device resource by the owning application and allocating the device resource to the requesting application when the arbitration decision determines the second privilege status is greater than the first privilege status.