Patent ID: 7742992

Claim:
A method for delivery of a license-managed toolset for creating a license-managed software product, the method comprising the step of: (a) providing an authorization process, the authorization process including the steps of: (i) creating a first public and private key pair for a software publisher, (ii) creating a second public and private key pair for a software program, wherein at least one of the second private and public keys is digitally signed by the first private key of the software publisher, (iii) creating an authorization program for the software program, and embedding a copy of the first and second public keys in the authorization program, (iv) combining the authorization program with a software program, such that when the software program is invoked on a computer, the authorization program obtains a license for the software program by: (1) creating a license request, (2) encrypting the license request using the second public key, (3) transmitting the encrypted license request to a key authority, (4) receiving an encrypted license from the key authority, wherein the license includes license terms, and (5) decrypting the license using the first public key, such that the license terms are used to control use of the software program; (b) implementing the authorization process in a software toolset that is provided by a toolset publisher, wherein when the authorization process is invoked in the software toolset, the toolset publisher is the publisher in the authorization process and the software toolset is the software program in the authorization process, and (c) implementing the authorization process in a software product that is provided by a publisher of the software product using the software toolset, wherein when the authorization process is invoked in the software product, the publisher of the software product is the publisher in the authorization process and the software product is the software program in the authorization process, whereby both the software toolset and the software product use the same authorization process to obtain respective licenses.