Patent ID: 7818262

Claim:
A method in a computing system of providing a licensed software product to a user, the method comprising: receiving a request, at a server within the computing system, for the licensed software product from the user, wherein the request for the licensed software product contains a user profile, user system configuration information, and information identifying the requested licensed software product wherein the user system configuration information corresponds to a system architecture for a user computer, and wherein the user system configuration information includes a hardware configuration for the user computer, a software configuration for the user computer, or both a hardware configuration and a software configuration for the user computer; authorizing, at the server within the computing system, the user to receive the requested licensed software product, wherein the authorizing includes: determining that the user has a sufficient number of tokens to receive the requested licensed software product; determining that the user profile contains information indicating the user is an authorized user of the licensed software product; and determining that the requested licensed software product is compatible with system resources and configuration of the user computer based at least in part on the user system configuration information and the information identifying the requested licensed software product, wherein the determining that the requested licensed software product is compatible with the system resources and configuration of the user computer includes comparing information regarding the requested licensed software product to the hardware configuration for the user computer, to the software configuration for the user computer, or to both the hardware configuration and the software configuration for the user computer; and transmitting the licensed software product to the user computer after determining that the user is authorized to receive the requested licensed software product.