Patent ID: 6983262

Claim:
A server having an automatic management mechanism for performing an automatic licensing process to license use of, and for providing access to, one or more software parts comprising computer executable code developed by one or more corresponding license management origins, for use by a user requesting access to and use thereof, comprising: a processing unit executing a program for automatically licensing to use said software parts; a buffer storing pairs of identifications identifying respective users and titles of software parts respectively corresponding to said identifications; a software parts storing unit storing said software parts, the titles of the software parts and names of said license management origins respectively corresponding to said software parts; said license management origins providing an allowance to use one or more of said software parts when use of the one or more software parts is permitted and not providing allowance to use one or more of said software parts when use of the one or more software parts is not permitted, upon receiving a request to use said one or more of said software parts; and said processing unit comprising means, responsive to receipt of a request for allowance to use said one or more of said software parts from a user, for executing said program to store said respective identification of said user in said buffer, for extracting, from said software parts storing unit, said one or more of the license management origins corresponding to said one or more of said software parts, for interrogating said extracted one or more of said license management origins to obtain an answer as to whether or not said one or more of said software parts is allowed to be used, for providing access to, and allowing the use of, said one or more of said software parts stored in said software parts storing unit only for the identified user who is allowed to use the one or more software parts, and for informing the identified user whether or not the one or more software parts is/are useable thereby.