| US 7,523,071 B2 | ||
| On-line software rental | ||
| Allen Fox, San Jose, Calif. (US); and Jesse Macnish, San Jose, Calif. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Yahoo! Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif. (US) | ||
| Filed on Sep. 16, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/667,129. | ||
| Claims priority of provisional application 60/411279, filed on Sep. 16, 2002. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2004/0128250 A1, Jul. 01, 2004 | ||
| Int. Cl. G06F 17/60 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 705—52 [705/53] | 84 Claims |
| 1. A method for providing on-line rental service for software, the method comprising:
assigning a collection of virtual containers to a set of users including one or more users,
wherein the collection is selected from a plurality of collections, each with a different quantity of virtual containers,
and
each virtual container in the collection being configured to identify one or more software products that are rented by users
in the set, and
the collection identifying a rental package of a predefined quantity of virtual containers at least one of which is configured
to identify a plurality of the software products accessible to the set of users, and
wherein at least one virtual container in the collection is assigned a virtual container priority level corresponding to a
variable software product access level, and
wherein at least one virtual container in the collection provides a different rental period duration from at least one other
virtual container in the collection, and
wherein at least one virtual container in the collection permits selectively removing a software product and adding a new
software product before the end of a rental period associated with the at least one virtual container; and
authorizing a user in the set to access a software product through a computer network based on whether the software product
is identified as a rented software product in one or more virtual containers of the collection assigned to the set of users.
|