Method for certifying delivery of secure electronic transactions

• US 6,317,729 B1
• Filed: 04/07/1998
• Issued: 11/13/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Linda J. Camp, Marvin A. Sirbu
• Original Assignee: Linda J. Camp, Marvin A. Sirbu
• Inventors: Sirbu, Marvin, Camp, Linda J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dixon, Thomas A.
• Application Number:
  US09/055,975
• Time in Patent Office: 1,316 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/39, 705/53, 705/69, 705/16, 705/26, 705/76, 705/79, 705/64
• US Class Current: 705/79
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/027 involving a payment switch or gateway
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3823 combining multiple encryption tools for a transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification

Abstract

A method of purchasing goods with electronic money includes encrypting information goods, incorporating the key in merchant data, and sending encrypted signed goods to a customer. The method further includes hashing the encrypted signed data to form hashed data, forming a purchase order that includes the encrypted signed data and the hashed data, and sending the purchase order from a customer to a merchant. The method further includes forming an authorization request message by combining the purchase order with the key, and sending the authorization request message from the merchant to a bank. Key delivery and payment verification are linked. The method further includes preparing payment verification data to include the key, and sending customer payment verification data from the bank to one of a dedicated key server or a certificate server. The method is compatible with SET and proves that certified delivery is possible within the SET framework.

Claims

1. A fault-tolerant method of purchasing a digital good compatible with the SET protocol and protocols derived from or compatible to the SET protocol in a transaction comprising steps of:

sending to a merchant from a consumer a request for delivery of the digital good at a price in a first non-SET protocol message;

sending from the merchant to the consumer a merchant-signed invoice and the digital good encrypted under a digital good encryption key in a second non-SET protocol message;

sending a SET purchase request message from the consumer to the merchant that includes an order description;

sending a SET authorization request message from the merchant to an acquirer gateway that includes the digital good encryption key and an indication that the transaction is a transaction for the digital good; and

sending a message to the consumer containing the digital good encryption key.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of sending a message to the consumer containing the digital good encryption key includes sending a message from the merchant.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of sending a message to the consumer containing the digital good encryption key includes sending a message from a dedicated key server agent.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of sending a message to the consumer containing the key includes sending a message from a certificate authorizing agent.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the merchant-signed invoice includes a partial order description.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the merchant-signed invoice includes a hash of the encrypted digital good.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step of verifying the merchant-signed invoice by verifying that a hash taken on the received encrypted digital good matches the hash included in the merchant-signed invoice.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step of initializing the transaction wherein the merchant-signed invoice includes a transaction identifier established during the step of initializing the transaction.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the order description includes both a partial order description and a hash of the encrypted digital good.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step of verifying information in the purchase request message wherein the step of verifying information in the purchase request message includes a step of verifying that a counter signature on the order description is valid.

11. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising a step of retaining records for dispute resolution that include the order description signed by both the consumer and the merchant, a hash of the encrypted digital good and a copy of the digital good encryption key at an entity for maintaining records, the entity for maintaining records including one of the acquirer gateway and an agent for the acquirer gateway.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising a step of sending a digital good encryption key request message from the consumer to the entity for maintaining records.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising a step of sending to the consumer, in response to a digital good encryption key request message, a key response message containing the digital good encryption key supplied by the merchant and identified as the digital good encryption key used to encrypt the digital good.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step of sending a SET verify customer data message from the acquirer gateway to the merchant wherein the digital good encryption key is included in the SET verify customer data message.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising steps of:

sending a SET capture request message from the merchant to the acquirer gateway; and

sending a SET capture response message from the acquirer gateway to the merchant wherein the key used to encrypt the digital good is contained in the SET capture response message.

16. A fault-tolerant method of purchasing a digital good compatible with the SET protocol and protocols derived from or compatible to the SET protocol in a transaction comprising steps of:

sending to a merchant from a consumer a request for delivery of the digital good at a price;

sending from the merchant to the consumer a merchant-signed invoice and the digital good encrypted under a digital good encryption key;

sending purchase request message from the consumer to the merchant that includes an order description;

sending an authorization request message from the merchant to an acquirer gateway that includes the digital good encryption key and an indication that the transaction is a transaction for the digital good, the indication that the transaction is a transaction for the digital good indicating that the transaction has the highest level of atomicity; and

sending a message to the consumer containing the digital good encryption key.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the authorization request message includes a MarketSpecData value that indicates that the transaction is for a digital good with certified delivery.

18. A fault-tolerant method of purchasing a digital good compatible with the SET protocol and protocols derived from or compatible to the SET protocol in a transaction comprising steps of:

sending to a merchant from a consumer a request for delivery of the digital good at a price;

sending from the merchant to the consumer a merchant-signed invoice and the digital good encrypted under a digital good encryption key;

sending a purchase request message from the consumer to the merchant that includes an order description;

sending an authorization request message from the merchant to an acquirer gateway that includes the digital good encryption key and an indication that the transaction is a transaction for the digital good, the authorization request message being an AuthReq message in the Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) protocol that includes the key used to encrypt the digital good; and

sending a message to the consumer containing the digital good encryption key.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein a portion of a SaleDetail field in the AuthReq message includes the digital good encryption key.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the digital good encryption key is included with a key sequence number.

21. A fault-tolerant method of purchasing a digital good compatible with the SET protocol and protocols derived from or compatible to the SET protocol in a transaction comprising steps of:

sending to a merchant from a consumer a request for delivery of the digital good at a price;

sending from the merchant to the consumer a merchant-signed invoice and the digital good encrypted under a digital good encryption key;

sending a purchase request message from the consumer to the merchant that includes an order description;

sending an authorization request message from the merchant to an acquirer gateway that includes the digital good encryption key and an indication that the transaction is a transaction for the digital good; and

sending a message to the consumer containing the digital good encryption key, wherein the step of sending a message to the consumer containing the digital good encryption key includes the merchant sending a purchase order verification message in the Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) protocol that includes the digital good encryption key.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the purchase order verification message contains the digital good encrytion key in a CompletionCode field.

23. A fault-tolerant method of purchasing a digital good compatible with the SET protocol and protocols derived from or compatible to the SET protocol in a transaction comprising steps of:

sending to a merchant from a consumer a request for delivery of the digital good at a price;

sending from the merchant to the consumer a merchant-signed invoice and the digital good encrypted under a digital good encryption key;

sending a purchase request message from the consumer to the merchant that includes an order description;

sending an authorization request message from the merchant to an acquirer gateway that includes the digital good encryption key and an indication that the transaction is a transaction for the digital good; and

sending a verify customer data message to the consumer containing the digital good encryption key wherein the digital good encryption key is included in a CompletionCode field of the verify customer data message.

24. A fault-tolerant method of purchasing a digital good compatible with the SET protocol and protocols derived from or compatible to the SET protocol in a transaction comprising steps of:

sending to a merchant from a consumer a request for delivery of the digital good at a price;

sending from the merchant to the consumer a merchant-signed invoice and the digital good encrypted under a digital good encryption key;

sending a purchase request message from the consumer to the merchant that includes an order description;

sending an authorization request message from the merchant to an acquirer gateway that includes the digital good encryption key and an indication that the transaction is a transaction for the digital good;

sending a message to the consumer containing the digital good encryption key;

retaining records for dispute resolution that include the order description signed by both the consumer and the merchant, a hash of the encrypted digital good and a copy of the digital good encryption key at an entity for maintaining records the entity for maintaining records, including one of the acquirer gateway and an agent for the acquirer gateway; and

sending a digital good encryption key request message from the consumer to the entity for maintaining records, wherein the digital good encryption key request message is a certificate request message in the Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) protocol with a special field indicating a digital good encryption key request.

25. A fault-tolerant method of purchasing a digital good compatible with the SET protocol and protocols derived from or compatible to the SET protocol in a transaction comprising steps of:

sending to a merchant from a consumer a request for delivery of the digital good at a price;

sending from the merchant to the consumer a merchant-signed invoice and the digital good encrypted under a digital good encryption key;

sending a purchase request message from the consumer to the merchant that includes an order description;

sending an authorization request message from the merchant to an acquirer gateway that includes the digital good encryption key and an indication that the transaction is a transaction for the digital good;

sending a message to the consumer containing the digital good encryption key;

retaining records for dispute resolution that include the order description signed by both the consumer and the merchant, a hash of the encrypted digital good and a copy of the digital good encryption key at an entity for maintaining records the entity for maintaining records, including one of the acquirer gateway and an agent for the acquirer gateway; and

sending a digital good encryption key request message from the consumer to the entity for maintaining records;

sending to the consumer, in response to a digital good encryption key request message, a key response message containing the digital good encryption key supplied by the merchant and identified as the digital good encryption key used to encrypt the digital good, wherein the key response message is a certificate response message in the Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) protocol with a special field containing the digital good encryption key.

26. A fault-tolerant method of purchasing a digital good compatible with the SET protocol and protocols derived from or compatible to the SET protocol in a transaction comprising steps of:

sending to a merchant from a consumer a request for deliver of the digital good at a price;

sending from the merchant to the consumer a merchant-signed invoice and the digital good encrypted under a digital good encryption key;

sending a purchase request message from the consumer to the merchant that includes an order description;

sending an authorization request message from the merchant to an acquirer gateway that includes the digital good encryption key and an indication that the transaction is a transaction for the digital good;

sending a message to the consumer containing the digital good encryption key;

sending a capture request message from the merchant to the acquirer gateway; and

sending a capture response message from the acquirer gateway to the merchant, wherein the key used to encrypt the digital good is contained in the capture response message.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the digital good encryption key is contained in a capture identifier field of the capture response message.