License re-allocation system and method
View Patent ↗A present invention license reallocation system and method facilitates flexible and effective licensing distribution. The license reallocation system and method enables convenient movement of licensed information between hardware devices while ensuring appropriate compliance with license terms. An expired license indication is generated on license expiration. The expired license indication indicates that prior license keys associated with proprietary information are expired. Upon receipt of a valid expired license indication and expired license keys new license key(s) is issued presumably for a different hardware. A license serial number (LSN) that is both globally unique and mutable is utilized to generate license keys. In one embodiment, the license serial number includes system serial number (SSN) and an extension serial number (ESN). The global uniqueness of the SSN ensures that the tuple (SSN, ESN) is globally unique and the mutable but non-repeating nature of the ESN ensures that the tuple is allowed to change without repeating its value.
1. A license re-allocation method comprising:
providing a license re-allocation process at a front-end server;
receiving a license expiry indication at a back-end server from a machine;
receiving expired license key at the back-end server from the machine;
validating expired license key by the back-end server by comparing said expired license key to said license expiry indication;
performing a license exchange process, in accordance with the license re-allocation process, on said license expiry indication and expired license keys by the back-end server and generating a new license key; and
forwarding results of said license exchange process to the machine.
2. A license re-allocation method of claim 1 wherein said license expiry indication includes information associated with a license serial number and expiration of a license.
3. A license re-allocation method of claim 2 wherein said license serial number can change and remain globally unique.
4. A license re-allocation method of claim 2 wherein said license serial number is a tuple comprising a system serial number and an extension serial number.
5. A license re-allocation method of claim 1 wherein said license exchange process comprises:
deciphering said license expiry indication;
deciphering said expired license keys;
comparing said expired license key to the said license expiry indication; and
accepting and storing the expired license key (for further re-distribution of its payload) if said expired license key matches said stored license expiry indication.
6. A license re-allocation method of claim 5 wherein said deciphering further comprises extracting a load capacity and license serial number from said expired license keys.
7. A license re-allocation method of claim 5 wherein said deciphering further comprises extracting license serial number from said license expiry indication.
8. A license re-allocation method of claim 1 wherein results of said license exchange process includes new license key(s) for a new license serial number.
9. A license re-allocation system comprising:
a front-end server for hosting a web site with license re-allocation features for receiving expired license keys and license expiry indication; and
a back-end server for performing a license exchange process associated with said expired license keys, wherein the back-end server comparing said expired license key to said license expiry indication and generating a new license key.
10. The license re-allocation system of claim 9 wherein said back-end server analyzes said expired license keys; stores information associated with said expired license key and generates a new license key.
11. The license re-allocation system of claim 9 wherein said back-end server prevents non-expired license keys from being exchanged by verifying an embedded license serial number in the expired license key matches license serial number in a stored license expiry indication.
12. The license re-allocation system of claim 9 wherein said back-end server prevents multiple exchanges of said expired license key by verifying said expired license key has not been exchanged before.
13. The license re-allocation system of claim 9 wherein said back-end server includes a database for tracking expired license key information.
14. The license re-allocation system of claim 13 wherein said back-end server tracks expired license keys that have been exchanged, old license serial numbers, new license serial numbers, and expired license keys.
15. A computer system comprising:
a bus for communicating information;
a processor, at a front-end server, for hosting a web site and processing information including instructions for participating in a license re-allocation process;
said license re-allocation process including the receipt of a license expiry indication and expired license keys from a machine in accordance with a license exchange process performed by a back-end server, wherein the back-end server comparing said expired license key to said license expiry indication and generating a new license key;
said processor communicatively coupled to said bus; and
a memory for storing information including information associated with said instructions for participating in said license re-allocation process, said memory communicatively coupled to said bus.
16. The computer system of claim 15 wherein said memory stores a license serial number (LSN) associated with information stored on said memory for execution by said processor, wherein said license serial number is globally unique.
17. The computer system of claim 16 wherein said license serial number can change and remain globally unique.
18. The computer system of claim 17 wherein said license serial number is a superset of a system serial number (SSN) and an extension serial number (ESN).
19. The computer system of claim 18 wherein said system is identified by said unique respective system serial number (SSN).
20. The computer system of claim 18 wherein said system serial number is immutable over a lifetime of associated hardware and said extension serial number is changeable but non-repeatable.