Patent ID: 7136645

Claim:
In a data communications environment including: a plurality of data networks or subnetworks capable of communicating Internet Protocol packet-based data; at least one resource consumer that consumes at least one resource; at least one mobile computing device coupled to at least one of said plurality of networks or subnetworks; and at least another computing device that is coupled to at least one of said plurality of networks or subnetworks, wherein said at least one mobile computing device communicates with said at least another computing device at least in part via at least one of said plurality of networks or subnetworks, a distributed policy-management arrangement comprising: a policy management module present at least on said at least one mobile computing device, said policy management module dynamically conditioning or dynamically modifying at least one of consumption of and access to said at least one resource by said at least one resource consumer; wherein said distributed policy management arrangement provides at least one of (a) a rule, and (b) a control, that dynamically conditions or dynamically modifies at least one of said consumption of and said access to said resource by the resource consumer based at least in part on at least one of (a) a change in the state of the resource consumer, (b) the identity of the resource consumer, (c) said mobile computing device's communication capability via at least one of said plurality of networks or subnetworks, (d) a time event associated with said policy management arrangement, and (e) a mobility event associated with said mobile computing device, wherein said policy management arrangement dynamically conditions or dynamically modifies said consumption of or access to the said at least one resource even if said communication(s) are encrypted.