Patent 7146340 was granted and assigned to Novell on December, 2006 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Methods and a system of licensing electronic data are provided. A method of ensuring proper licensing is provided, comprising the executable instructions of receiving a data file and removing at least a portion of the data file which prevents any use associated with the data file. Further, a license authenticating set of executable instructions are wrapped around the data file and executed to determine whether the data file is associated with a valid license. If the data file is associated with a valid license, the removed portion of the data file is restored making the data file available for use.