Patent ID: 7650360

Claim:
A computer system including one or more processors and computer memory, for managing the access of system resources in a database comprising the following computer executable components implemented using the one or more processors and computer memory: a lock manager wherein the lock manager: acquires a parent lock on a parent resource and one or more child locks on child resource(s) of the parent resource of a database, the locks preventing other applications from at least one of modifying data or using data which may not be accurate; stores a reference count of the one or more child locks within the parent lock such that as each child lock is released, the reference count decrements by a value of one, and releases the parent lock upon release of all child locks associated therewith, wherein the parent lock is released upon the reference count attainment of a zero value, such that data in the previously locked resources can be at least one of modified or used by another application.