Patent ID: 8544000

Claim:
An information processing device, comprising: a processor configured to control the information processing device; an installation unit to download installation data of an application program corresponding to a function from an external device and install the application program in the information processing device; a license acquisition unit to acquire a license file from an external device in order to activate the function in the information processing device; a license managing unit to manage presence of a license of the function in the information processing device independently of presence of the license file; a license transfer managing unit to transfer the license from a source device to a destination device and update the presence of the license of the function; and an automatic return unit to automatically return the transferred license to the source device according to automatic return conditions stored in the information processing device, wherein the automatic return conditions comprise device information containing identification information of each of a plurality of devices to which a set of priority levels are assigned, and wherein the automatic return unit is arranged so that, when the source device is in a power OFF state or the license is already returned to the source device, the license is returned to one of the plurality of devices which is determined according to the set of priority levels.