Patent ID: 8650557

Claim:
An information processing apparatus, comprising: an install unit to receive install data for software to install the software for providing a function; an acquisition unit to acquire a license file for activating the function; a management unit to manage management information, the management information including a license identifier indicative of the license file, origin information indicative of license origin apparatus, recipient information indicative of license copy recipient apparatus, and license information indicative of presence or absence of a license to use the function, independently of presence or absence of the license file; a memory device to store programs; and a processing device to execute the programs to control the install unit, the acquisition unit, and the management unit, wherein the license origin apparatus indicated by the origin information is an apparatus having acquired from an external license management system the license file issued by the external license management system, wherein upon the acquisition unit acquiring the license file from another apparatus having the license file, the management unit performs a first updating process in response to detecting that the information processing apparatus having acquired the license file from said another apparatus is the license origin apparatus indicated by the origin information, and performs a second updating process in response to detecting that the information processing apparatus having acquired the license file from said another apparatus is not the license origin apparatus indicated by the origin information, the first updating process setting the license information equal to an indication of presence of the license, the second updating process setting the license information equal to an indication of presence of the license and setting the origin information equal to an indication of the license origin apparatus, and wherein upon receiving a license transfer request from a given apparatus, the management unit performs a third updating process in response to detecting that the information processing apparatus having received the license transfer request is the license origin apparatus indicated by the origin information, and performs a fourth updating process in response to detecting that the information processing apparatus having received the license transfer request is not the license origin apparatus indicated by the origin information, the third updating process setting the license information equal to an indication of absence of the license and adding an indication of the given apparatus in the recipient information, the fourth updating process setting the license information equal to an indication of absence of the license and notifying the license origin apparatus of transfer of the license to the given apparatus.