Patent US10572688

Blockchain based software licensing enforcement
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US10572688

1. A method comprising: (1) (1)

at a server, for a copy of a software program among a plurality of copies of the software program to be distributed: compiling the copy of the software program with a randomly generated string that is unique to the copy of the software program to produce compiled code;

computing a hash of the compiled code to produce a unique identifier for the copy of the software program;

upon obtaining a request from a user to download the copy of the software program, generating a transaction for a blockchain, the transaction having a transaction identifier and the transaction including a user identifier for the user and the unique identifier;

embedding the transaction identifier and the unique identifier with the copy of the software program; and

downloading the copy of the software program to a computing device associated with the user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: (2) (3)

obtaining from the computing device a validation request for the copy of the software program, the validation request including information obtained from the copy of the software program, including the unique identifier and the transaction identifier;

determining whether to validate the validation request; and

providing a validation response to the computing device based on the determining.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein if the validation request is to be validated, further comprising: (1) (1)

generating a new transaction and an associated transaction identifier for the blockchain and setting a validation flag in a transaction block.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the generating the new transaction is performed for each validation of an installation instance of the copy of the software program such that there is a transaction having a validation flag set in the blockchain for each validated installation instance of the copy of the software program. (1) (0)

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the validation request further includes one or more of: network address associated with the computing device, geographical location of the computing device, or information about a business enterprise of which the computing device or user is a part. (1) (0)

9. An apparatus comprising: (1) (2)

a communication interface configured to enable communications over a network; and

one or more processors coupled to the communications interface, the one or more processors configured to, for a copy of a software program among a plurality of copies of the software program to be distributed: compile the copy of the software program with a randomly generated string that is unique to the copy of the software program to produce compiled code;

compute a hash of the compiled code to produce a unique identifier for the copy of the software program;

upon obtaining a request from a user to download the copy of the software program, generate a transaction for a blockchain, the transaction having a transaction identifier and the transaction including a user identifier for the user and the unique identifier;

embed the transaction identifier and the unique identifier with the copy of the software program; and

download the copy of the software program to a computing device associated with the user.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors are configured to: (2) (3)

obtain from the computing device a validation request for the copy of the software program, the validation request including information obtained from the copy of the software program, including the unique identifier and the transaction identifier;

determine whether to validate the validation request; and

provide a validation response to the computing device based on whether the validation request is validated.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein if the validation request is to be validated, the one or more processors are configured to: (1) (1)

generate a new transaction and an associated transaction identifier for the blockchain and setting a validation flag in a transaction block.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are configured to: (1) (1)

generate the new transaction for each validation of an installation instance of the copy of the software program such that there is a transaction having a validation flag set in the blockchain for each validated installation instance of the copy of the software program.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more processors are configured to: (1) (1)

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the validation request further includes one or more of: network address associated with the computing device, geographical location of the computing device, or information about a business enterprise of which the computing device or user is a part. (0)

16. One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with software comprising computer executable instructions and when the software is executed operable to perform operations comprising, for a copy of a software program among a plurality of copies of the software program to be distributed: (1) (5)

compiling the copy of the software program with a randomly generated string that is unique to the copy of the software program to produce compiled code;

computing a hash of the compiled code to produce a unique identifier for the copy of the software program;

embedding the transaction identifier and the unique identifier with the copy of the software program; and

downloading the copy of the software program to a computing device associated with the user.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 16, further comprising instructions operable for: (1) (3)

determining whether to validate the validation request; and

providing a validation response to the computing device based on whether the validation request is validated.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 17, wherein if the validation request is to be validated, further comprising instructions operable for: (1) (1)

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Patent US10572688

Blockchain based software licensing enforcement

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