Method of facilitating a transaction between a buyer and at least one seller
First Claim
1. A method of facilitating a transaction between a buyer, at least one seller, and at least one financial institution, wherein the transaction is conducted through a facilitator, said method comprising the steps of:
- establishing a buyer account for the buyer with the facilitator;
authenticating the buyer to the facilitator;
retrieving information for the buyer from either one of the buyer and the buyer account in response to authenticating the buyer;
selecting a first product from a first seller;
retrieving information for the first product;
retrieving information for the first seller;
associating the information for the first product and the information for the first seller with the buyer account;
selecting a second product from a second seller different from the first seller;
retrieving information for the second product;
retrieving information for the second seller;
said method characterized by associating the information for the second product and the information for the second seller with the buyer account while the information for the first product and the information for the first seller remains associated with the buyer account during a single transaction.
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Abstract
The subject invention relates generally to a method of electronically purchasing goods and services over a wide area network and more particularly to a retail method of performing, recording, and reporting commercial transactions on the Internet. Specifically, provides a method of facilitating a transaction between a buyer, at least one seller, a financial institution, and at least one collector, if required, wherein the transaction is conducted through a facilitator. The facilitator manages a commercial transaction on behalf of the parties involved and disburses payments and information appropriately, especially collecting, reporting and paying commercial transaction tax funds to the appropriate tax collection authority. Additionally, the subject invention includes a method of using a single account to manage and engage in a variety of transactions with more than one different entity on the Internet.
114 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method of facilitating a transaction between a buyer, at least one seller, and at least one financial institution, wherein the transaction is conducted through a facilitator, said method comprising the steps of:
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establishing a buyer account for the buyer with the facilitator;
authenticating the buyer to the facilitator;
retrieving information for the buyer from either one of the buyer and the buyer account in response to authenticating the buyer;
selecting a first product from a first seller;
retrieving information for the first product;
retrieving information for the first seller;
associating the information for the first product and the information for the first seller with the buyer account;
selecting a second product from a second seller different from the first seller;
retrieving information for the second product;
retrieving information for the second seller;
said method characterized by associating the information for the second product and the information for the second seller with the buyer account while the information for the first product and the information for the first seller remains associated with the buyer account during a single transaction. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of facilitating a transaction between a buyer, at least one seller, a financial institution, and at least one collector, wherein the transaction is conducted through a facilitator, said method comprising the steps of:
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establishing a buyer account for the buyer with at least one of the facilitator and the seller;
authenticating the buyer to at least one of the facilitator and the seller;
selecting a first product from a first seller;
retrieving information for the first product;
retrieving information for the first seller;
associating the information for the first product and the information for the first seller with the buyer account;
determining an amount of funds to be paid to the first seller;
determining an amount of funds to be paid to the at least one collector;
determining a total amount of funds due in response to determining the amount of funds to paid to the first seller and the collector;
transmitting buyer information from the buyer account to the financial institution and transmitting a request to the financial institution to disperse the total amount of funds to the facilitator;
receiving the total amount of funds requested from the financial institution;
paying the amount of funds to the first seller for the first product from the total amount of funds;
said method characterized by paying the amount of funds to the collector by the facilitator independent of the buyer and the first seller based upon the information of the first product. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification