Inventors:
Viswanath Vadlamani - Sammamish WA, US
Shek Lun Ho - Sammamish WA, US
Lazar Ivanov Ivanov - Seattle WA, US
Caglar Gunyakti - Sammamish WA, US
Kalin Toshev - Bellevue WA, US
Assignee:
MICROSOFT CORPORATION - Redmond WA
International Classification:
H04K 1/00
Abstract:
A method and a system are provided for issuing a number of different types of time-based licenses associated with software products. The system may include an activation server, which may maintain licensing information in a licensing database, and a licensing platform, which may request issuance and renewal of time-based licenses. Each of the time-based licenses may be associated with respective product keys and may have a number of configurable parameters, which may make the time-based licenses suitable for a number of different licensing business models. The licensing business models may include, but not be limited to, a non-renewable evaluation license, a renewable trial license, a one-time promotion license, and a subscription license. In some embodiments, a configurable parameter may indicate an amount of time for a grace period after a time-based license would have normally expired.