EP-4736033-A1 - METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ADAPTIVE LICENSING BASED ON REAL-TIME USAGE DATA

Abstract

A system and method for an adaptive license is provided. The system includes a license usage collection module to collect real-time usage data and user interaction of licensed software, a license analyzer module for analyzing and identifying patterns and trends of licensed features from the real-time usage data and user interaction, and a license adjustment module to adjust the terms and conditions of the license, thereby providing a flexible and responsive licensing approach. In another arrangement it receives predetermined options for configuring an automatic adaptability of a license model. In some embodiments it notifies and prompts a user of the licensed software for acceptance or denial of license terms according to said real-time usage data and user interactions. Other embodiments disclosed.

Inventors

• KAKKIRALA, Lakshmana Mani Pavan
• Garg, Abhinav

Assignees

• THALES DIS CPL USA, INC.

Dates

Publication Date

20260506

Application Date

20240612

Claims (1)

1. CLAIMS What is claimed, is: 1 . A system of adaptive licensing, comprising: a license design module to receive predetermined options for configuring an automatic adaptability of a license model for terms and conditions of a license; a license usage collection module coupled to the license design module, to collect 204 real-time usage data and user interaction of licensed software at a licensee client device 102 under the license according to said license model; a license analyzer module coupled to the license usage collection module for analyzing 206 the real-time usage data and user interaction, and therefrom identifying patterns and trends of licensed features of the licensed software under the license according to said license model; and a license adjustment module coupled to the analyzer module that, responsive to identification of said patterns and trends, adjusts the terms and conditions of the license 101 , wherein the step of collecting real-time usage data and user interaction of licensed software comprises obtaining usage data from various sources, including user interactions with the software, system logs, license usage data and telemetry data of the licensee client device, whereby said analyzer module in conjunction with said license adjustment module automatically adapts the license terms and conditions to establish usage of said licensed features and provide a cost effective and robustly monetizable license responsive to said collecting real-time usage data and user interaction. 2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a license design module to receive predetermined options for configuring an automatic adaptability of a license model for terms and conditions of a license, wherein the license adjustment module responsive to identification of said patterns and trends, adjusts the terms and conditions of the license according to said configuring of said automatic adaptability, thereby providing a flexible and responsive licensing approach to the licensee of the licensed software with via a pre-set and configurable adaptive licensing module. 3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the license usage collection module implements and uses a webSocket is to fetch said realtime usage data and provide realtime license delivery; obtains usage data from various sources, including user interactions with the software, system logs, license usage data and telemetry data of the licensee client device; and notifies and prompts a user of the licensed software for acceptance or denial of license terms deemed applicable to said real-time usage data and user interactions. 4. The system of claim 2, wherein the analyzer module identifies customer use and purchase behaviors associated with a use of the licensed features and corresponding usage data in view of said patterns and trends; and adjusts license terms, including adding or removing features, increasing or decreasing usage limits, or changing pricing models, in view of opportunities identified in said patterns and trends. 5. The system of claim 5, wherein the analyzer module and license adjustment module continue to monitor usage patterns and adjust license terms to optimize licensing costs and ensure that users have access to the features and services they need. 6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the license adjustment module changes a license duration based on how frequently the software is being used or how long the customer has been using it. 7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the license adjustment module changes license scope to allow and restrict certain features or functionality of the licensed software based on how the customer is using it. 9. The system of claim 2, wherein the license adjustment module changes a price of the license based on how often the software is being used, the number of users, and the features being used. 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the license adjustment module changes a level of customer support based on how often the software is being used and the level of support needed based on the number of issues encountered. 11 . A method of adaptive licensing, comprising: collecting real-time usage data and user interaction of licensed software at a licensee client device under the license according to said license model by way of a license usage collection module coupled to the license design module; analyzing the real-time usage data and user interactions, and therefrom identifying patterns and trends of licensed features of the licensed software under the license according to said license model by way of an analyzer module coupled to the license usage collection module; and adjusting the terms and conditions of the license by way of a license adjustment module coupled to the analyzer module responsive to identification of said patterns and trends, and notifying and prompting a notifies and prompts a user of the licensed software for acceptance or denial of license terms deemed applicable to said real-time usage data and user interactions, wherein the step of collecting real-time usage data and user interaction of licensed software comprises obtaining usage data from various sources, including user interactions with the software, system logs, license usage data and telemetry data of the licensee client device, thereby automatically adapting the license terms and conditions to establish usage of said licensed features and provide a cost effective and robustly monetizable license responsive to said collecting real-time usage data and user interaction. 12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising receiving predetermined options for configuring an automatic adaptability of a license model for terms and conditions of a license by way of a license design module, wherein said adjusting the terms and conditions of the license according to said configuring of said automatic adaptability by way of a license adjustment module under the predetermined options of the license model, thereby providing a flexible and responsive licensing approach to the licensee of the licensed software with via a pre-set and configurable adaptive licensing module. 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising identifying customer use and purchase behaviors associated with a use of the licensed features and corresponding usage data in view of said patterns and trends adjusting license terms, including adding or removing features, increasing or decreasing usage limits, or changing pricing models, in view of opportunities identified in said patterns and trends; and continually monitoring usage patterns and adjust license terms to optimize licensing costs and ensure that users have access to the features and services they need. 14. The method of claim 12, further comprising limiting a number of concurrent users based on usage data and adjusting license fees according to a number of multiple devices using the licensed software, and adjusting license renewal terms based on licensee’s usage behavior and history, including offering discounts for loyalty to customers who have been using the software frequently or automatically renewing or extending the license. 15. The method of claim 12, further comprising performing an analysis or audit usage based on adherence to one or more predetermined usage policy options under the license, and modify the license based on the analyzing or auditing of usage to provide the licensee with a modified license in accordance with the one or more predetermined usage policy options that are active, wherein the usage policy options reference or include parameters pre-set in a configuration stage and associated with software application features.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ADAPTIVE LICENSING BASED ON REAL-TIME USAGE DATA TECHNICAL FIELD [00001] The present disclosure generally relates to software licensing and control over license use. More particularly, but not exclusively, the present disclosure relates to a method of adaptive licensing based upon real-time usage data. BACKGROUND [00002] Software licensing is a process through which an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and/or Identity Verification (IDV) offers their software application product or embedded device firmware to an individual or business for a fee. It is a means by which end-users gain access to software and products, while the ownership rights remain with the software publisher. End-users must generally accept some form of a software licensing agreement in order to use the software. Numerous types of software licensing models are available to unlock software for users, varying from simple perpetual licenses and subscription licenses to more advanced models such as floating licensing. [00003] The majority of software vendors are moving towards a cloud based subscription model for licensing purposes. In this realm, various types of software licensing models are available: perpetual, concurrent, subscription-based, proprietary, feature-based, network-based, cloud-based and so on. Traditional licensing models are typically based on fixed terms and conditions, and do not consider the actual usage patterns or customer data. One example of a fixed term license is one that allows the user to use the software for a fixed period of time. Any change requires an update request, which must be processed, and then reviewed, usually internally, then approved and produced for deployment of a fixed license update. These steps occur independently and not in real-time while a user is in the process of using a licensed application. Moreover, long deployment cycles with fixed terms and corresponding payment intervals can introduce other issues and restrictions that disrupt delivery of new functionality in the short term [00004] Furthermore, some users may be unaware of all the available software features, or which features are even available, or which features they are currently using, and thus not benefit from a full use of the license. Consider, a licensed package whereby the user is only aware of two features, and is unaware of a third hidden features. Consequently, users may end up paying for features or services that they do not use, or may be limited in their ability to use certain features or services when they need them. As a result, users may end up paying for features or services that they do not use, or may be limited in their ability to use certain features or services when they need them. Accordingly, a traditional fixed license may be considered inflexible and inconvenient from the licensee and licensors perspective. [00005] Although traditional licensing helps Independent Service Vendors (ISV’s) or Identify Vendors (IDV’s) in compliance tracking and auditing, they generally fails to automatically control or restrict, when there is a deviation from compliance needs. This is also because licenses are generally fixed at the onset without further oversight or guidelines on using the license after deployment. From a licensee’s perspective, the typical existing strategies fail to dynamically adapt for the actual software usage. Other systems may track usage for compliance, but similarly fail to adequately modify or adapt licenses considering several use case scenarios that will enable licensors to still monetize their software in a cloud computing environment with existing customers while still providing improved customer satisfaction with advantages over traditional licensing. [00006] US Patent No. 9246916 issued on Jan 26, 2016 is directed to an architecture for enforcing rights in digital content that allows access to encrypted digital content only in accordance with parameters specified by license rights acquired by a user of the digital content. A point of novelty in this license approach is use of a license server that issues a license to a DRM system that is ‘trusted’, and is equipped with a ‘black box’ that performs decryption and encryption functions for such DRM system. The license is stored in the DRM system thereby allowing the user to render the digital content according to the rights conferred by the license and specified in the license terms. [00007] US Patent No. 4937863 issued on June 26, 1990 to assignee Digital Equipment Corporation entitled “Software Licensing Management System” discloses a license management system which includes a license management facility that determines whether usage of a licensed program is within the scope of the license. The license management system maintains a license unit value for each licensed program and a pointer to a table identifying an allocation unit value associated with each use of the licensed program. In response to a request to use a li