Patent ID: 8713161

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a processor; a memory; a storage device configured to store therein application software and a license file to the application software, wherein the license file includes an expiration date of a license of the application software and a class of the license of the application software, wherein the class includes a trial version that allows the application software to be used on a trial basis or an official version that allows the application software to be used with a right of use; a network interface configured to connect to a license management server that manages the license of the application software; a detecting unit configured to detect whether the expiration date included in the license file has passed; a class identifying unit configured to identify whether the class of the license whose expiration date is detected as having passed is the trial version or the official version; an update-process determining unit configured to determine a method of performing a license update process, wherein in response to the class identifying unit identifying the class of the license as the trial version, the update-process determining unit determines the method as a first update method, in which the license file stored in the storage device is replaced with a license file of the official version, and in response to the class identifying unit identifying the class of the license as the official version, the update-process determining unit checks, through the license management server, whether the license update process has been completed by a user, and when the license update process has not been completed, the update-process determining unit determines the method as a second update method, in which the license file stored in the storage device is replaced with a license file of the trial version; a license-file acquiring unit configured to when the update-process determining unit determines the method as the first update method, acquire the license file of the official version from the license management server, and when the update-process determining unit determines the method as the second update method, acquire the license file of the trial version from the license management server; and an updating unit configured to replace the license file stored in the storage device with either the license file of the official version or the license file of the trial version that is acquired by the license-file acquiring unit, wherein the memory is configured to store the detecting unit, the class identifying unit, the update-process determining unit, the license-file acquiring unit, and the updating unit and the processor is configured to implement the detecting unit, the class identifying unit, the update-process determining unit, the license-file acquiring unit, and the updating unit.