Data communication terminal, fee management system and fee management method and program

• US 10,165,129 B2
• Filed: 08/03/2015
• Issued: 12/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Optim LLC
• Original Assignee: Optim LLC
• Inventors: Sugaya, Shunji
• Primary Examiner(s): Shedrick, Charles T
• Application Number:
  US14/816,973
• Publication Number:
  US 20160277592A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• Field of Search: 455406, 455407, 709206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1428 Invoice generation, e.g. customization, lay-out, database processing, algorithms for calculating the bill or formatting invoices as WWW pages invoicing in general G06Q30/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1435 volume-based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1457 using an account
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/61 based on the service used
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8033 location-dependent, e.g. business or home
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8214 Data or packet based

Abstract

The present invention determines whether the data traffic of the application is for private use or for business use and charges data communication charge to the appropriate user based on the traffic usage. The data communication terminal 100 runs an application, executes data communication to transmit tag information and the data traffic of the data communication to the charge management server 10 in response to the execution of the data communication. The charge management server 10 calculates the data communication charge corresponding to the data traffic received from the data communication terminal, and determines whether the data traffic is for private use or for business use based on the tag information received from the data communication terminal to calculate the data communication charge for each usage.

Claims

1. A charge management system comprising:

a data communication terminal and a charge management server managing a charge for the data communication terminal, wherein

the data communication terminal includes;

a data communication unit running an application to execute data communication over a given data communication pathway; and

a data communication information transmitter unit transmitting tag information and the data traffic of the data communication to the charge management server in response to the execution of the data communication; and

the charge management server includes;

a data communication charge calculating unit calculating data communication charge corresponding to the data traffic received from the data communication terminal via said given data communication pathway; and

a usage-based charge calculating unit determining whether the data traffic over said given data communication pathway is for private use or for business use based on the tag information received from the data communication terminal to calculate data communication charge for each usage;

wherein the usage-based charge calculating unit determines the usage based on an email address included in the received tag information to calculate the data communication charge for each usage.

2. A charge management system comprising:

a data communication terminal and a charge management server managing a charge for the data communication terminal, wherein

the data communication terminal includes;

a data communication unit running an application to execute data communication over a given data communication pathway; and

a data communication information transmitter unit transmitting tag information and the data traffic of the data communication to the charge management server in response to the execution of the data communication; and

the charge management server includes;

a data communication charge calculating unit calculating data communication charge corresponding to the data traffic received from the data communication terminal via said given data communication pathway; and

a usage-based charge calculating unit determining whether the data traffic over said given data communication pathway is for private use or for business use based on the tag information received from the data communication terminal to calculate data communication charge for each usage;

wherein the usage-based charge calculating unit determines the usage based on the size of an attached file included in the received tag information to calculate the data communication charge for each usage.

3. A charge management system comprising:

a data communication terminal and a charge management server managing a charge for the data communication terminal, wherein

the data communication terminal includes;

a data communication unit running an application to execute data communication over a given data communication pathway; and

a data communication information transmitter unit transmitting tag information and the data traffic of the data communication to the charge management server in response to the execution of the data communication; and

the charge management server includes;

a data communication charge calculating unit calculating data communication charge corresponding to the data traffic received from the data communication terminal via said given data communication pathway; and

a usage-based charge calculating unit determining whether the data traffic over said given data communication pathway is for private use or for business use based on the tag information received from the data communication terminal to calculate data communication charge for each usage;

wherein the usage-based charge calculating unit determines the usage based on the data traffic included in the received tag information to calculate data communication charge for each usage.

4. A data communication terminal managing its own data communication charge, comprising:

a data communication unit running an application to execute the data communication over a given data communication pathway;

a data communication information storage unit to acquire tag information and the data traffic of the data communication via said given data communication pathway in response to the execution of the data communication;

a data communication charge calculating unit calculating data communication charge corresponding to the acquired data traffic;

a usage-based charge calculating unit determining whether the data traffic communicated via said given data communication pathway is for private use or for business use based on the acquired tag information to calculate data communication charge for each usage; and

a data communication charge transmitter unit transmitting the calculated data charge for each usage;

wherein the usage-based charge calculating unit determines the usage based on the data traffic included in the received tag information to calculate data communication charge for each usage or wherein the usage-based charge calculating unit determines the usage based on the size of an attached file included in the received tag information to calculate the data communication charge for each usage;

wherein the usage-based charge calculating unit determines the usage based on the data traffic included in the received tag information to calculate data communication charge for each usage or wherein the usage-based charge calculating unit determines the usage based on the size of an attached file included in the received tag information to calculate the data communication charge for each usage or wherein the usage-based charge calculating unit determines the usage based on an email address included in the received tag information to calculate the data communication charge for each usage.

5. The data communication terminal according to claim 4 further comprising a billing unit charging the data communication charge for each usage calculated by the usage-based charge calculating unit to a billing address based on the usage.