Method of billing services, server and telecommunication systems
First Claim
1. A method of billing services in a communications system, which comprises servers (SPS) of service providers (SPS) and billing servers (BS1-3), which provide billing services, characterized in that address data and service attributes of billing services are transmitted in an advertising message over a data transfer network to the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS), the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) selects one billing service from among advertised billing servers (BS1-3) for the billing transaction of a client according to the parameters given by the client and said service attributes, or offers advertised billing services for the client to select, the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) initiates the billing transaction with the billing server (BS1-3) of the selected billing service by means of said address data and service attributes.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) receives dynamically address data and service attributes of available billing services and servers on telecommunication networks, such as the Internet, in advertising messages (DAAvert) which billing servers (BS1, BS2, BS3) or special directory servers (DA) send. The service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) can select one billing service from among the available billing servers for the billing transaction of a client on the basis of the parameters given by the client and said service attributes or offer advertised billing services for the client to select. Then the service provider'"'"'s server initiates the billing transaction with the billing server of the selected billing service by means of said address data and service attributes or transfers billing to the selected billing server which performs it. In an embodiment of the invention the server (SPS) is configured to transfer the billing transaction to the billing server and the client, which perform it using the attributes supported by the billing server and receive an acknowledgement of billing carried out from the billing server. The server preferably creates an invoice form which is transferred to the client device in a pre-filled form for use in a billing transaction between the client device and the billing server.
49 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method of billing services in a communications system, which comprises servers (SPS) of service providers (SPS) and billing servers (BS1-3), which provide billing services, characterized in that
address data and service attributes of billing services are transmitted in an advertising message over a data transfer network to the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS), the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) selects one billing service from among advertised billing servers (BS1-3) for the billing transaction of a client according to the parameters given by the client and said service attributes, or offers advertised billing services for the client to select, the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) initiates the billing transaction with the billing server (BS1-3) of the selected billing service by means of said address data and service attributes.
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12. A communications system which comprises client devices, servers (SPS) of service providers and billing servers (BS1-3), which provide billing services, characterized in that
the billing server (BS1-3) or a separate directory server is arranged to transmit address data and service attributes of billing services to the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) in an advertising message, the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) is arranged to select one billing service from among the advertised billing servers (BS1-3) for the billing transaction of a client according to the parameters given by the client or said service parameters or offer advertised billing services for the client to select, the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) is arranged to initiate the billing transaction with the billing server (BS1-3) of the selected billing service by means of said address data and service attributes.
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17. A server of a service provider in a communications system, which comprises client devices, servers (SPS) of service providers and billing servers (BS1-3), which provide billing services, characterized in that
for the billing transactions of clients the server (SPS) uses billing services the address data and service attributes of which the server has received in advertising messages transmitted to the server, the server (SPS) is arranged to select one billing service from among the advertised billing servers (BS1-3) for the billing transaction of a client on the basis of the parameters given by the client and said service attributes or offer advertised billing services for the client to select, the server (SPS) is arranged to initiate a billing transaction with the billing server (BS1-3) of the selected billing service by means of said address data and service attributes.
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22. A method of billing services in a communications system, which comprises servers (SPS) of service providers and billing servers (BS1-3), which provide billing services, characterized in that
the address data and service attributes of the billing services are transmitted in an advertising message to the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) over a telecommunication network, employing said address data and service attributes the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) generates an electronic invoice form which corresponds to the requirements of a billing service, the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) adds its address and billing data and a link to the billing server (BS1-3) of said billing service to the electronic invoice form, the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS) transfers said electronic invoice form to a client device in response to a purchase transaction initiated by a client, the client adds his billing data to said invoice form, the invoice form filled in is transferred to the billing server indicated by said link, the billing server (BS1-3) makes payment from the client to the service provider, possibly communicating with the client device, the billing server (BS1-3) sends an acknowledgement of the payment made to the client and/or the service provider'"'"'s server (SPS).
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26. A server of a service provider in a telecommunication system, which comprises client devices, servers (SPS) of service providers and billing servers (BS1-3), which provide billing services, characterized in that
for the billing transactions of clients the server (SPS) uses the billing services the address data and service attributes of which the server has received in advertising messages transmitted to it, the server (SPS) is arranged to utilize said address data and service attributes to generate or download an electronic invoice form which corresponds to the requirements of a billing service and transfer said electronic invoice provided with its own billing information and a link directed to said billing service or transfer said electronic invoice provided with the address of the billing service to the client device for the client to fill in and for forwarding to said billing service.
Specification