Patent ID: 8041642

Claim:
A software license distribution system comprising: a plurality of software licenses associated with a plurality of application files, wherein each software license authorizes usage of one of the application files, wherein the plurality of software licenses are shared among users at two or more sites; a communication channel interconnecting the two or more sites; at least two sites, each site comprising: a license server, wherein each site has a predetermined number of the software licenses for using a set of application files by a set of users located at the site, the license server comprising: a memory; a processor in communication with the memory, the processor operable to: autonomously generate a software license usage statistic indicative of a number of users concurrently using the application files during a predetermined time period at the site; send, through the communication channel, the software license usage statistic to at at least one other license server at least one other site; receive, through the communication channel, at least one other software license usage statistic from the at least one other license server at at the at least one other site; autonomously calculate a predicted software license usage at the site based on the generated software license usage statistic; autonomously calculate at least one other predicted software license usage at the at least one other site based on the at least one other received software license usage statistic from the at least one other site; autonomously authorize usage of the first set of application files at the site, wherein the first set of application files corresponds in number to the predicted software license usage at the site; and in response to receiving a software usage request in excess of the first predicted software license usage, obtain at least one additional software license from the at least one other site.