Method and apparatus for policy-based management of assets

摘要

A method and system for managing shared use of an asset. An asset device and an owner device accomplish an initial setup procedure to register the owner with the asset. One or more secure policies are then sent from the owner device, or another device authorized to create policies, to one or more user devices. The policies express user conditions and limitations for using the asset. Subsequently, the user device transmits the secure policy to the asset device. Once the policy has been transferred from the user device to the asset device, user associated with the user device can request use of the asset and will be granted the requested use if the requested use is permitted by the policy.