Patent ID: 7966520

Claim:
A method for controlling a right to use a computational component, comprising: (a) providing a primary computational component and at least one backup computational component, wherein, when the primary computational component is in an operational mode and validly licensed, the backup computational component is in a standby mode; (b) receiving a notification that at least one of the following is true: (i) that the primary computational component is no longer in the operational mode; (ii) that the backup computational component is in the operational mode; and (iii) that the backup computational component will be in the operational mode; (c) in response to the notification, determining that a license error has occurred; and (d) thereafter and while the primary computational component is not in the operational mode, reading a license error timer value associated with the backup computational component, (i) when the value of the timer is not at least a first value and when the backup computational component is otherwise validly licensed, permitting the backup computational component to be in the operational mode and (ii) when the value of the timer has reached at least the first value, no longer permitting the backup computational component to be in the operational mode.