Patent ID: 8423473

Claim:
A system for activating a computer game in response to a user attempting to play the game on a computing device, comprising: a license server configured to detect a communication link between the license server and the computing device, and to execute, responsive to detecting the communication link, functions to: receive from the computing device a combination of (a) a game identifier for a requested game and (b) a device identifier for the computing device via the link, the device identifier derived from a combination of at least one user-configurable parameter and at least one non-user-configurable parameter of the computing device; access a database of known game identifiers, each known game identifier being associated with (a) a known game, (b) a device count corresponding to a total number of known devices on which the known game was previously played, and (c) known device identifiers for the known devices; obtain from the database a usage policy for the requested game, the usage policy including a maximum device count for the requested game; and send an activation instruction to the computing device based at least in part on (a) a device comparison between the device identifier for the computing device and the known device identifiers, and (b) a count comparison between the device count and the maximum device count; an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) server in operative communication with the license server and the computing device, the IVR server configured to: instructs the user to provide a device code comprising at least one of the device identifier and a second hash code of the device identifier; instruct the user to complete a phone transaction in response to the license server detecting no communication link between the license server and the computing device; translate the game code and the device code into at least one activation code; and send the at least one activation code to the license server; and wherein the license server is further configured to extract the game identifier and the device identifier from the at least one activation code.