JP2005250635A - License management method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a license management method that allows a company or the like with many users to commonly and efficiently use license software according to license, and an apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: The license management apparatus 10 comprises a license requesting part 11 that seeks permission for the usage of the license software 20 from a plurality of users; a license storage part 14 that stores information about the license software 20; a license investigating part 13 that refers to the license software 20 in the license storage part 14 according to user requirements; an alternative means storage part 16 that stores an alternative means for each piece of license software 20; and an alternative means construction part 15 that constructs the alternative means by referring to the data stored in the alternative means storage part 16. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a license management method and apparatus, and more particularly to a software (or computer program) license management method and apparatus.

  Various information processing apparatuses including a personal computer (PC) are widespread and used for various purposes. In order to use these information processing apparatuses for specific purposes, it is indispensable to develop application software in addition to an operating system (OS). The development of this application software requires a lot of effort. Thus, application software developed for a specific application can be used not only by a developer but also for the same application by other users, thereby reducing development costs. Therefore, general-purpose application software is licensed (licensed) to other users.

  As software development costs increase, the importance of software licenses increases. In addition, if the licensee (licensee) does not properly use the software that has been developed and licensed with difficulty, the profit of the licensor (licenseer) will be impaired. Therefore, efficient software management is required. In particular, in companies and other organizations that have multiple users, licensed software is not provided for each user, and the software required for the business is selected and used (or license requested) in cooperation with the organization or group as a license. In many cases, a license fee is paid for each use. In this case, since the license fee varies depending on the number that can be executed simultaneously, the number that can be executed simultaneously is generally limited. Of course, there is license software that can be used without limitation.

  Such a license management system is disclosed in several documents. A license management system, a license management apparatus, and a method that permit use of a license program when the total license permission number is less than the maximum number of licenses that can be executed simultaneously are disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 1). Also disclosed is a software license management system that manages licenses and usage of various software programs processed by the digital data processing system so that these software programs are properly used within the scope of the software license. (For example, refer to Patent Document 2).

  The software license management system disclosed in Patent Document 2 described above will be briefly described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the system. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the system.

  As shown in FIG. 7, this conventional license management system 70 is a system for managing a license program 72, and includes a license request unit 71, a license investigation unit 73, and a license storage unit 74. The operation of this system 70 is requested by the user as shown in FIG. 8 (step B1). Next, it is determined whether or not the license can be used (step B2). If it can be used (step B2: Yes), license use is permitted (step B3). On the other hand, if it is not usable (step B2: No), the license use is not permitted (step B4).

JP 2003-186559 A (4th page, FIG. 1) Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-14321 (page 5-8, FIG. 1)

  As described above, in the conventional license management system, only the license program requested by the user for the license program is determined to determine whether there is a vacant license, and to determine whether to permit / deny use. Therefore, unless the number of licenses is secured in advance, there is a problem in that use permission cannot be granted in response to a use (or license) request from a user, and business execution is hindered.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and is a license management method and method that can be performed without any unnecessary licenses, and therefore, at a necessary minimum cost and without causing any trouble in business. An object is to provide an apparatus.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the license management method and apparatus according to the present invention employs the following characteristic configuration.

(1) In a license management method in the case where a plurality of users jointly use various licensed software licensed in order to perform their business,
A license management method for defining and storing alternative software in advance for each of the licensed software and constructing alternative means by referring to the defined and stored alternative software when a license request is received from a user.

  (2) The license management method according to (1), wherein the alternative software is stored together with a priority for each licensed software.

  (3) The license management method according to (1) or (2), wherein the license software is stored together with the number of concurrently executable, the number being executed, the number of free licenses, and presence / absence of alternative means.

  (4) The license management method according to (1), (2), or (3), wherein the alternative software is displayed as an alternative menu on the information processing apparatus of the user according to the priority.

(5) In a license management apparatus in which a plurality of users request licenses for various licensed software to perform their business and use them jointly based on the investigation result of the license investigation unit,
An alternative means constructing section that is interconnected with the license research section and constructs alternative software for license software requested by the user; and an alternative means storage section that stores alternative software information referred to by the alternative means constructing section; A license management apparatus comprising:

  (6) The license management apparatus according to (5), wherein the alternative means storage unit stores in advance alternative means that exists for each license software.

  (7) The license management apparatus according to (5) or (6), wherein, when there are a plurality of alternative means, the alternative means storage unit simultaneously stores priorities of the alternative means.

  (8) The license management apparatus according to (5), (6), or (7), wherein the alternative unit storage unit includes a description regarding a function of the alternative unit.

  (9) The license management apparatus according to (8), wherein the priority is determined based on a license fee.

  According to the license management method and apparatus of the present invention, the following practical advantages can be obtained. That is, the number of licensed software can be reduced. The reason is that when a predetermined number of licensed software is used by other users, the alternative means presents the alternative licensed software and uses it to avoid concentrating on the specific licensed software. It can be used. In addition, it is possible to automatically present an alternative means that the user does not fully recognize and to make it known well. Furthermore, it is possible to avoid a stagnation of business due to the license not permitting specific license software. In addition, the use of alternative means with a lower license fee can reduce the cost required for business execution.

  Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of a preferred embodiment of a license management method and apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of a preferred embodiment of a license management apparatus according to the present invention. A license management apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1 is an apparatus that manages licensing (licensing) of licensed software (hereinafter referred to as licensed software) 20 to a user. The license management apparatus 10 includes a license request unit 11, a license survey unit 13, a license storage unit 14 connected to the license survey unit 13, an alternative unit construction unit 15 that investigates alternative units for the license software 20, and an alternative unit storage unit. 16.

  Next, FIG. 2 shows a specific example of a data structure stored or stored in the license storage unit 14. In this specific example, the license storage unit 14 stores the license software 20, the number of simultaneously executable license software 20 (a) 40, the number of license software 20 being executed (b) 41, the number of free licenses (c) 42, and The presence / absence 43 of the alternative means of each license software 20 is included.

  In the specific example shown in FIG. 2, the license software 20 stored in the license storage unit 14 includes four pieces of software AP1 to AP4. For example, the software AP1 in the license software 20 will be described. The simultaneously executable number (a) 40 is 5, the number of currently running software (b) 41 is 4, and the number of free licenses (c) = (a )-(B) is 1, indicating that the presence / absence 43 of the alternative means is “Yes”.

  Next, FIG. 3 shows a specific example of the data structure of the alternative means storage unit 16. The specific example of the data stored in the alternative means storage unit 16 includes license software 20, alternative means 60, priority 61, and alternative means explanation 62. That is, for each license software 20, an alternative means 60, a priority 61, and an alternative means explanation 62 are stored. For example, the license software AP1 has three alternative softwares AP2, AP3, and AP4 as the alternative means 60, and the license software AP2 has two alternative softwares AP3 and AP4. The priority 61 is indicated by a symbol such as A, B, and C. Here, the priority 61 is A> B> C. In addition, as an explanation 62 of the alternative means, it is described whether the function is almost the same, only the basic performance can be replaced, only the display function can be replaced, or the like.

  Next, the operation of the license management apparatus 10 according to the present invention shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the license management apparatus 10 according to the present invention.

  First, the license request unit 11 requests activation of the license software 20 (step A1). The license investigation unit 13 searches the license storage unit 14 and investigates whether or not the alternative unit 43 shown in FIG. 2 is defined, that is, the presence or absence of the alternative unit (step A2). When the alternative means 43 exists (step A2: Yes), the alternative means construction unit 15 in FIG. 1 searches the alternative means storage unit 16, that is, investigates the alternative means 60 and its priority 61, and further licenses. The number of free licenses 42 is acquired by the investigation unit 13 (step A3).

  Next, the alternative means constructing unit 15 creates an “alternative menu” (or alternative means menu) as shown in FIG. 5 (step A4). The license request unit 11 executes the license request again from the “alternate menu” in FIG. 5 (step A5). On the other hand, when there is no alternative means in step A2 described above (step A2: No), steps A4 to A5 described above are not executed.

  Here, a specific example of the “alternative menu” shown in FIG. 5 will be described. This “alternative menu” is displayed on the display screen of the terminal device. In the specific example of the “alternative menu” shown in FIG. 5, the license software AP1 to AP4 has their descriptions, that is, as described above with reference to FIG. 3, for example, almost the same function, only the basic function, only the display function, The number of licenses 42 is displayed as “1”, “5”, or “unlimited”. Therefore, the user selects one of them using a mouse, for example, and selects it appropriately with a soft key such as “OK” or “Cancel”.

  Next, the license investigation unit 13 investigates whether or not the license can be used based on the number of available licenses 42 shown in FIG. 2 (step A6). If there is a free license 42 (step A6: Yes), use of the license is permitted (step A7). On the other hand, when there is no free license number 42 (step A6: No), license use permission is not performed, that is, license use is not permitted (step A8). The priority 61 of the alternative means 60 may be set according to the system operation policy (for example, in ascending order of license cost).

  Next, a second embodiment of the license management method and apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the preferred or first embodiment described above, when AP1 is selected as the license software 20 of FIG. 2, the number 41 in execution of the data structure in the license storage unit 14 shown in FIG. 5 ". At the same time, the free license 42 is also changed from “1” to “0”.

  Thereafter, the operation when another license request unit 11 requests AP1 as the license software 20 again will be described. The “alternate menu” displayed in step A4 of the first embodiment described above is changed as shown in the “alternate menu” 60 in FIG. 6 in order from the AP2 having the highest priority 61 in a state where the AP1 cannot be selected. . That is, the license software AP1 is displayed as being unselectable, for example, white or displayed.

  The configuration and operation of the preferred embodiment of the license management method and apparatus according to the present invention have been described in detail above. However, it should be noted that such examples are merely illustrative of the invention and do not limit the invention in any way. Those skilled in the art can easily understand that various modifications and changes can be made according to the application without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  For example, when a license that can be executed simultaneously is given, a license that is valid only for a certain period may be set, but the present invention can also be applied to such a case. In other words, since the user who requested the AP having the full function did not have a free license, the target rough process is temporarily advanced using another alternative means (basic function), and the above expiration date has passed. If you can use the necessary AP (advanced function) only when it is really necessary, such as additional editing with the remaining advanced functions after the availability of the full-function AP without an available license, Effective use of licenses.

It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of the preferred Example of the license management apparatus by this invention. It is a specific example of the storage data of the license memory | storage part in FIG. It is a specific example of the memory | storage data of the alternative means memory | storage part in FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the license management apparatus shown in FIG. 1. It is a 1st display example of the alternative menu by this invention. It is a 2nd example of a display of the alternative menu by this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the conventional general license management apparatus. It is a flowchart explaining operation | movement of the license management apparatus shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 License management apparatus 11 License request part 13 License investigation part 14 License storage part 15 Alternative means construction part 16 Alternative means storage part 20 License software

Claims (9)

In the license management method when a plurality of users jointly use various licensed software licensed to perform their business,
A license management method comprising: predefining and storing alternative software for each licensed software, and constructing alternative means by referring to the defined and stored alternative software when a license is requested from a user .   The license management method according to claim 1, wherein the substitute software is stored together with a priority for each license software.   3. The license management method according to claim 1, wherein the license software is stored together with the number of concurrently executable, the number being executed, the number of free licenses, and presence / absence of alternative means.   4. The license management method according to claim 1, wherein the alternative software is displayed as an alternative menu on a user information processing apparatus according to the priority. In the license management device when a plurality of users request licenses for various licensed software to perform their own work and use them jointly based on the investigation result of the license investigation unit,
An alternative means constructing section that is interconnected with the license research section and constructs alternative software for license software requested by the user; and an alternative means storage section that stores alternative software information referred to by the alternative means constructing section; A license management apparatus comprising:   6. The license management apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the alternative means storage unit stores in advance alternative means that exists for each license software.   The license management apparatus according to claim 5 or 6, wherein, when there are a plurality of alternative means, the alternative means storage unit simultaneously stores priorities of the alternative means.   8. The license management apparatus according to claim 5, 6 or 7, wherein the alternative means storage unit includes a description regarding a function of the alternative means.   The license management apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the priority is determined based on a license cost.

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