Method and apparatus for conducting electronic commerce transactions using electronic tokens
DCFirst Claim
1. A method of conducting electronic commerce over the Internet using micropayments, the method comprising:
- opening a user account with a vendor for a user;
issuing one or more electronic tokens from the vendor to the user account, wherein no physical manifestation, other than a database entry, of the user account occurs, each electronic token having a value of at least a fraction of a dollar;
providing products and services that may be purchased from the vendor at micropayment levels, wherein prices for the products and services are listed in units of electronic tokens;
permitting the user to select, at any participating vendor web site, a subset of the products and services for purchase from the vendor;
computing at the participating vendor web site a total price for the selected subset of the products and services in units of electronic tokens;
authorizing a purchase transaction at the participating vendor web site without requiring any third party authentication and a physical manifestation of the user account; and
if the user account contains electronic tokens having a value equal to or greater than the total price, permitting the user to purchase the selected subset of the products and services without requiring the user to disclose personal information to the vendor, and subtracting the total price from the user account, wherein the purchase transaction is not subject to a minimum processing fee.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for conducting electronic commerce using electronic tokens are described. The electronic tokens are issued and maintained by a vendor, who also provides products and services that can be purchased or rented using the electronic tokens. The electronic tokens may be purchased from the vendor either on-line, using a credit card, or off-line, using a check, money order, purchase order. Because the vendor is the issuer of the electronic tokens, there is no need for transactions to be handled by a third party, such as a bank or other organization. This reduces the overhead involved in conducting electronic commerce, and provides the vendor with a greater amount of control. Additionally, the vendor maintains total control over the price of the electronic tokens at any time. For vendors who offer software products for sale or rental, use of electronic tokens makes a variety of rental arrangements practical, including rental for short periods of time, for a specific number of uses, or for a specific number of processings.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method of conducting electronic commerce over the Internet using micropayments, the method comprising:
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opening a user account with a vendor for a user; issuing one or more electronic tokens from the vendor to the user account, wherein no physical manifestation, other than a database entry, of the user account occurs, each electronic token having a value of at least a fraction of a dollar; providing products and services that may be purchased from the vendor at micropayment levels, wherein prices for the products and services are listed in units of electronic tokens; permitting the user to select, at any participating vendor web site, a subset of the products and services for purchase from the vendor; computing at the participating vendor web site a total price for the selected subset of the products and services in units of electronic tokens; authorizing a purchase transaction at the participating vendor web site without requiring any third party authentication and a physical manifestation of the user account; and if the user account contains electronic tokens having a value equal to or greater than the total price, permitting the user to purchase the selected subset of the products and services without requiring the user to disclose personal information to the vendor, and subtracting the total price from the user account, wherein the purchase transaction is not subject to a minimum processing fee. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28)
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27. A server operated by a vendor that provides products for sale or rental over the Internet, the server comprising:
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a network interface through which the server communicates with a user over the Internet; a database; a memory; a processor that executes software stored in the memory, the software including one or more programmed routines, the programmed routines comprising; a registration routine that opens a user account with a vendor in the database for the user; an electronic token sale routine that issues one or more electronic tokens from the vendor to the user account, wherein no physical manifestation, other than a database entry, of the user account occurs, each electronic token having a value of at least a fraction of a dollar; a display routine that displays the prices of the products in units of electronic tokens; a selection routine that permits the user to select, at any participating vendor web site, a subset of the products for purchase from the vendor without requiring the user to disclose personal information to the vendor, a total price of the subset of the products being computed in units of electronic tokens; authorizing a purchase transaction at the participating vendor web site without requiring any third party authentication and physical manifestation of the user account; a purchase routine that determines if the user account contains electronic tokens having a value equal to or greater than the total price, and if so, subtracts the total price from the user account, wherein the purchase transaction is not subject to a minimum processing fee; and a download routine that enables the use to download the selected subset from the Internet.
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Specification