Patent ID: 8763159

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for managing licenses in virtual environments, the method comprising: launching a virtual environment session on a hardware node; installing a first application in the virtual environment; storing a first application license in a license repository; installing a second application on the hardware node, the second application having the same licensing scheme as the first application; generating a request, by the second application, the request containing a marker of the licensing scheme and a session identifier; creating a secure tunnel between the first application and the second application; sending the request to the first application over the tunnel; generating, by the first application, a message containing a group license key, if the marker of the licensing scheme of the second application coincides with that of the first application; encrypting the message with a secret key; sending the message to the second application over the tunnel; decrypting the message by the second application and adding an identifier of the second application to the message; sending the message to a licensing server; receiving a license activation key from the licensing server, if the licensing server validates the message; and activating a license of the second application with the license activation key, wherein the secret key includes the virtual environment session identifier.