Patent ID: 8539609

Claim:
A device managing apparatus for managing software installed in at least one device, the device managing apparatus comprising: a processing unit; a non-transitory medium storing instructions executable by the processing unit to configure the device managing apparatus to include: a storage unit configured to store, for each software, a correspondence relationship between a product key and a plurality of issue-granted licenses; a determination unit configured to determine automatically, for said each software, a need for license validation, based on whether number of issued licenses has reached number of the plurality of issue-granted licenses; and an acquiring unit configured to, for said each software, refer to license managing information associating the product key with number of available licenses which is updated upon license validation, and in a case that the determination unit determines that a particular software item requires license validation, acquire number of additional licenses for the particular software item based on the product key allocated to the particular software item which is determined by the determination unit to require license validation.