Patent US 5,568,552

An integrated circuit component for enforcing licensing restrictions. Such enforcement is performed through remote transmission of access privileges for executing a licensed program from the integrated circuit component to another similar component. The integrated circuit component comprising a non-volatile memory for storing a uniquely designated key pair, an authentication device certificate and a manufacturer public key along with cryptographic algorithms, a processor for executing the cryptographic algorithms in order to process information inputted into the integrated circuit component and for transmitting the processed information into volatile memory and a random number generator for generating the uniquely designated key pair internally within the integrated circuit component.