Patent ID: 7475429

Claim:
A method of embedding into a text document generated by a licensed software a License Identification Signature of the software, the method comprising: converting all space characters of the text document to identical black space characters consisting of a black color; after said converting, computing a Document Hash Value (DHV) consisting of a one-way hash of the text document, wherein each original copy of the software has been assigned a unique Software License Code (SLC) and a unique License Identification Key (LIK) by a Licensing Authority; computing a License Identification Code (LIC) consisting of a cryptographic digest of the DHV by applying a cryptographic hash function to the DHV and using the LIK as a key; forming a License Identification Signature (LIS) consisting of the SLC, the DHV, and the LIC, said LIS consisting of digits expressed in base 5; forming an encoded LIS by mapping the digits of the LIS to corresponding character attributes, said encoded LIS consisting of the corresponding character attributes respectively corresponding to the digits of the LIS; embedding the corresponding character attributes into respective consecutive black space characters starting with the first black space character at the beginning of the text document.