Multi-merchant purchasing environment for downloadable products

• US 20060167810A1
• Filed: 01/24/2005
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nolan, Sean, Bhambri, Vikram, Hempey, Matthew D., Button, Thomas L., Sausville, Paul C., Walsh, Deirdre L., Biyani, Raj, Warren, Susan
• Application Number:
  US11/042,916
• Publication Number:
  US 20060167810A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A multi-merchant purchasing system is configured to identify downloadable products selected by a user for purchase. The identified downloadable products are offered by multiple merchants. The multi-merchant purchasing system enables the user to purchase all of the downloadable products in a single transaction. Specifically, the multi-merchant purchasing system determines payment information associated with the user and, with minimum user-interaction, sends the payment information to applications associated with the merchants for processing. The multi-merchant purchasing system may also be configured to receive purchase information from the merchant applications and maintains the purchase information for the user in a locker. The multi-merchant purchasing system may further be configured to automatically download and install the purchased product onto the user'"'"'s computing device through a software assistant. To ensure privacy and security, the multi-merchant purchasing system may include a credit card quarantine module to secure credit card data by encoding and multiple levels of encryptions.

Claims

1. ) One or more device-readable media having device-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

identifying downloadable products for purchasing by a user, the downloadable products being offered by multiple merchants;

presenting a user-interface for purchasing the downloadable products from the multiple merchants with a single transaction;

determining payment information associated with the user;

providing the payment information to each of the merchants for processing, without interacting with the user;

receiving purchasing information from each of the merchants, the purchasing information including licenses for each of the purchased products; and

enabling the purchased products to be downloaded.

2. ) The one or more device-readable media recited in claim 1, wherein the steps further comprising:

retrieving updated product information about the downloadable products from the services associated with each merchant; and

providing the updated product information to the user prior to providing the payment information to the merchants.

3. ) The one or more device-readable media recited in claim 1, wherein the steps further comprising requesting authorization from the user prior to providing the payment information to the merchants.

4. ) The one or more device-readable media recited in claim 1, wherein the steps further comprising retrieving the payment information from a data store, without prompting the user for the information.

5. ) The one or more device-readable media recited in claim 1, wherein the steps further comprising:

requesting an authentication service to authenticate the user; and

if the user is not authenticated, preventing the user from purchasing the downloadable products.

6. ) The one or more device-readable media recited in claim 1, wherein the steps further comprising if the user is authenticated, receiving account information associated with the user from the authentication service.

7. ) A computing device configured to read the one or more device-readable media and perform the steps as recited in claim 1.

8. ) An apparatus configured with means to perform the steps as recited in claim 1.

9. ) A system for purchasing downloadable products comprising a purchasing module configured to receive a list of downloadable products that are provided by multiple merchants, the list of downloadable products being identified to be purchased by a user, the purchasing module also configured to present a user-interface for purchasing the downloadable products in a single transaction and to determine payment information associated with the user, the purchasing module further configured to provide the payment information to a service associated with each merchant and to receive purchasing information about the purchased products from services.

10. ) The system as recited in claim 9, further comprising an authentication system configured to authenticate the user and provide confirmation to the purchasing module.

11. ) The system as recited in claim 9, wherein the purchasing module includes an interface for interacting with a catalog provider configured to enable the user to select the downloadable products provided by the multiple merchants and to send the list of downloadable products to the purchasing module.

12. ) The system as recited in claim 9, further comprising a software assistant configured to receive instructions for downloading the purchased products from the purchasing module and to download the purchased products onto a computing device associated with the user.

13. ) The system as recited in claim 9, further comprising a data store, wherein the purchasing module is configured to store the purchasing information in the data store.

14. ) The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the purchasing module is configured to retrieve the payment information from a data store, without requesting the information from the user.

15. ) The system as recited in claim 9, wherein the downloadable products include at least one of downloadable digital content, software, music, videos, or graphics.

16. ) The system as recited in claim 9, wherein the merchants include at least one of producers of the downloadable products, online retailers, resellers, or catalog providers.

17. ) A computer-implemented method for purchasing downloadable digital content comprising:

determining software products offered by multiple merchants, the software products being selected by a user through a shopping application;

providing a user-interface for purchasing the selected software products with a single transaction;

in response to a selection to purchase the software products, determining payment information associated with the user;

sending the payment information to merchant applications, each of the applications being associated with at least one of the merchants;

receiving purchasing information from each of the merchant applications; and

providing the purchasing information to the user.

18. ) The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 17, further comprising retrieving from a data store the payment information provided in a prior transaction.

19. ) The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 17, further comprising authenticating the user before sending the payment information to the merchant applications.

20. ) One or more device-readable media encoded with a computer-executable component configured to perform the computer-implemented method as recited in claim 17.