“he patent claims in 7,617,530 appear to be for system software
which, when an application needs a higher privilege level, displays
a graphical list of users with the privileges required to perform
the task. Selecting one of the users and entering that user’s
password allows the task to be performed with that users
privilege.“This behaviour is very similar to that of PolicyKit, with the
only apparent difference being that PolicyKit requires applications
to request privileges, whereas the 7,617,350 patent allows the
operating system to block a privileged action and then offer the
user a way to raise their privileges.”