Software pay-per-use system
CA 2133237 C · Owner: Reinke, Robert E. · Inventors: Reinke, Robert E.; Michel, Alan Dean
Overview
Its claims, description and drawings are in the Canadian Patents Database.
Open the CIPO recordAbstract From the Canadian patent
A pay per use system for the prevention of the unauthorized use of computer software. An encryption program encodes original software to produce secured software. The encoding is accomplished by using cryptographic techniques. In order to use the software a, user must call a telephone number to receive the cryptographic keys necessary to decrypt the secured software. Thus, users must pay for each use of the secured software. The system allows software developers to freely distribute the secured software. Copies of the secured software may be freely made, because payment is based on each use of the software not on each copy of the software.
Read the whole patent
Listed from its CIPO record in Patent Yard's archive of Canadian patents past their term. Its claims, description and drawings are in the CIPO record and on Google Patents, and the Claude kit works from them.
Why it's free to use
- Filed September 29, 1994 and granted August 18, 1998. A Canadian patent filed from October 1, 1989 lasts 20 years from filing, so its term ended September 29, 2014.
- A certificate of supplementary protection adds at most two years for a drug, so even that would have ended by September 29, 2016.
- We check Canadian rights only. A patent in its family in another country could still be in force: check its family on Google Patents.
Timeline
Timeline From CIPO dates
Sources & verification
Official CIPO records
Everything on this page comes from the CIPO record linked above. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.