Role-Centric Software License Enablement Manager
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Solution Overview
Problem
Software companies face challenges in managing software licenses across different environments and users, as traditional licenses are device-centric and do not account for varying legal terms and conditions, leading to the need for multiple software package offerings with different legal terms for different customers and environments.
Innovation Solution
A role-centric licensed feature enablement system that manages software licenses based on user roles, allowing access to resources and features according to established roles and corresponding rights, with a system comprising a software application provider server, role examiner server, and customer enterprise application server to ensure compliance with software license agreements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple software package offerings are created with different legal terms for different customers and environments, then license compliance is achieved, but software package complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the software package into multiple components: a core software product and separate license agreements. Each license agreement is further segmented by environment type (development, production, etc.). This allows the same software product to be distributed under different legal terms without creating multiple complete software packages, thereby reducing complexity while maintaining compliance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal software package offering that can serve multiple customers and environments. Instead of creating specialized packages for each scenario, a single package design is made universal through the use of environment-specific license agreements that attach different legal terms to the same software product, allowing one package to fulfill multiple licensing needs.
2Reliability
If environment-specific license terms are applied to the same software product, then legal compliance is improved, but the number of software package offerings increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the environment-specific legal terms from the software package itself and places them into separate license agreements. This extraction allows the core software product to remain unchanged and universally distributable, while the legal compliance requirements are handled by attaching appropriate license agreements rather than creating different package versions.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of inverting the software product itself to create environment-specific versions, the patent inverts the approach by keeping the software product uniform and inverting only the legal layer. The license agreements are structured to be environment-specific while the software remains the same, effectively applying the inversion principle to the licensing mechanism rather than the software package.
3Device complexity
If a single software package offering is used for all customers, then package simplicity is improved, but adaptability to different legal terms and environments deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamics into the licensing system by making license agreements selectable and assignable based on the operational environment. The software package remains static and simple, but the licensing layer becomes dynamic, allowing the same package to adapt to different legal requirements by attaching the appropriate license agreement to each deployment scenario.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods provide for licensed feature enablement management for deploying software to be used in conformance with a software license agreement. The system includes a software application provider server that deploys a software application and a role hierarchy enumerating a list of roles and features of the software application that each role in the list of roles is licensed to use in accordance with a license agreement. The software application provider server further comprises a role examiner server that determines whether the deployed software application is being used in compliance with the software license. The system also includes a customer enterprise application server that receives the deployed application and role hierarchy and enables use of the application to customer employees based on their assigned roles. The customer enterprise application server comprises a role directory server that responds to queries from the role examiner to maintain conformance with the software license.