Patent ID: 8086538

Claim:
A method for metering usage of services in a service-based data processing infrastructure, the method including the steps of: submitting an application invocation of a provider service by a consumer service; intercepting the application invocation before being transmitted to the provider service; submitting a licensing invocation of a licensing service, the licensing invocation including an indication of the intercepted application invocation; enabling the transmission of the application invocation by the licensing service according to a predetermined enabling policy, including returning an entitlement code to the consumer service in response to the positive verification of the entitlement, the entitlement code being provided to the provider service in association with the application invocation and being provided to the licensing service in association with the further licensing invocation; further intercepting the application invocation before being processed by the provider service; and enabling the processing of the application invocation by the licensing service according to a predetermined further enabling policy, including verifying the entitlement code.