Pre-filling order forms for transactions over a communications network

• US 7,363,248 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2000
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fintegraph, LLC (Ascend Innovation Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Invenda Corporation
• Inventors: Rollins, Eugene J., Padala, Sailendra, Hendrikse, Norbert
• Primary Examiner(s): Garg, Yogesh C.
• Application Number:
  US09/747,651
• Publication Number:
  US 20020103712A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,678 Days
• Field of Search: 705/25, 705/26, 705/14, 705/38, 705/64, 715/507, 715/513, 707/10, 707/507, 709/203, 709/217, 709/218, 709/221
• US Class Current: 705/26.8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• 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 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0268 at point-of-sale [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0464 using hop-by-hop encryption, i.e. wherein an intermediate entity decrypts the information and re-encrypts it before forwarding it
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Communications between participants over a communications link are proxied by an intermediary, such as an Integrated Order Mechanism (IOM). Participants interact with each other through the IOM. The IOM may be transparent to the participants such that they are not aware that the IOM is involved in processing communications. For example, in the context of a transaction by a customer making a purchase from a merchant over the Internet, the IOM facilitates the processing of transactions by processing requests from both the customer and the merchant. Neither the customer nor the merchant may be aware that the transactions are being handled by the IOM. Order forms may be pre-filled for the transactions. For example, the IOM may obtain customer information from a database and use the customer information to complete the customer fields on a merchant web page containing an order form.

Claims

1. A method for processing requests from a client for electronic documents located at a server, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

receiving, by an intermediary disposed between the client and the server, a request from the client for an electronic document located at a first address at the server, the request made by a user at the client;

retrieving, by the intermediary, the electronic document from the first address;

retrieving, by the intermediary, information associated with the user;

generating an updated electronic document from the retrieved electronic document, said updated electronic document including at least a portion of the information associated with the user; and

providing the updated electronic document to the client for the user in response to the request.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving validation data from the user, and

validating the validation data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

storing the information associated with the user such that the information may be used with one or more other electronic documents.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

storing the information associated with the user via an Internet cookie.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

storing the information associated with the user in an encrypted format.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein

the electronic document is a web page, and

the updated electronic document is an updated web page generated by an integrated order mechanism.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving information associated with the user further comprises the step of:

retrieving, via a tracer image, information associated with the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving information associated with the user further comprises the step of:

retrieving, via a post from a server, information associated with the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the request from the user is received at an intermediary, wherein the electronic document is stored on a server, and wherein the step of retrieving the electronic document comprises the steps of:

sending a new request from the intermediary to the server; and

receiving, at the intermediary, the electronic document from the server in response to the new request.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving information associated with the user comprises the step of:

retrieving information associated with the user from a wallet server.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving information associated with the user comprises the step of:

retrieving information associated with the user from an encrypted wallet cookie.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document includes one or more data fields, and wherein the step of generating the updated electronic document comprises the step of:

generating, based upon the electronic document, the updated electronic document by updating the one or more data fields based upon the information associated with the user.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating the updated electronic document further comprises the steps of:

determining whether one or more variables included in the electronic document include valid user data; and

when the one or more variables are determined to not includes valid user data, revising the electronic document by substituting one or more data values from the information associated with the user for the one or more variables.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the user is comprised of a plurality of data values, wherein the electronic document includes one or more variables, and wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

determining whether each of the one or more variables in the electronic document corresponds to at least one of the plurality of data values;

when each of the one or more variables does not correspond to at least one of the plurality of data values, performing the steps of;

examining a context in which each of the one or more variables is used in the electronic document;

identifying a particular data value from the plurality of data values, wherein the particular data value conforms to the context in which each of the one or more variables is used; and

substituting the particular data value for each of the one or more variables in the electronic document.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the intermediary is neither the client or the server.

16. A computer-readable medium for processing requests from a client for electronic documents located at a server, the computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

receiving, by an intermediary disposed between the client and the server, a request from the client for an electronic document located at a first address at the server, the request made by a user at the client;

retrieving, by the intermediary the electronic document from the first address;

retrieving, by the intermediary, information associated with the user;

generating an updated electronic document from the retrieved electronic document, said updated electronic document including at least a portion of the information associated with the user; and

providing the updated electronic document to the client for the user in response to the request.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

receiving validation data from the user, and

validating the validation data.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the step of:

storing the information associated with the user such that the information may be used with one or more other electronic documents.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the step of:

storing the information associated with the user via an Internet cookie.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the step of:

storing the information associated with the user in an encrypted format.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the electronic document is a web page, and

the updated electronic document is an updated web page generated by an integrated order mechanism.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the step of retrieving information associated with the user further comprises instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the step of:

retrieving, via a tracer image, information associated with the user.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the step of retrieving information associated with the user further comprises instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the step of:

retrieving, via a post from a server, information associated with the user.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the request from the user is received at an intermediary, wherein the electronic document is stored on a server, and wherein the step of retrieving the electronic document further comprises instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

sending a new request from the intermediary to the server; and

receiving, at the intermediary, the electronic document from the server in response to the new request.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the step of retrieving information associated with the user further comprises instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the step of:

retrieving information associated with the user from a wallet server.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the step of retrieving information associated with the user further comprises instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the step of:

retrieving information associated with the user from an encrypted wallet cookie.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the electronic document includes one or more data fields, and where in the step of generating the updated electronic document further comprises instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the step of:

generating, based upon the electronic document, the updated electronic document by updating the one or more data fields based upon the information associated with the user.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the step of generating the updated electronic document further comprises instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

determining whether one or more variables included in the electronic document include valid user data; and

when the one or more variables are determined to not include valid user data, revising the electronic document by substituting one or more data values from the information associated with the user for the one or more variables.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the information associated with the user is comprised of a plurality of data values, wherein the electronic document includes one or more variables, and wherein the computer-readable medium further comprises instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

determining whether each of the one or more variables in the electronic document corresponds to at least one of the plurality of data values;

when each of the one or more variables does not correspond to at least one of the plurality of data values, performing the steps of;

examining a context in which each of the one or more variables is used in the electronic document;

identifying a particular data value from the plurality of data values, wherein the particular data value conforms to the context in which each of the one or more variables is used; and

substituting the particular data value for each of the one or more variables in the electronic document.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the intermediary is neither the client or the server.

30. A system for processing requests from a client for electronic documents located at a server, the system comprising:

an intermediary disposed between the client and the server; and

a server that is associated with an electronic document located at a first address at the server;

wherein the intermediary, in response to a request from the client made by a user at the client for the electronic document, is configured to retrieve both the electronic document from the server first address and information associated with the user,

wherein the intermediary is configured to generate an updated electronic document from the retrieved electronic document, said updated electronic document including that includes at least a portion of information associated with the user, and

wherein the intermediary is configured to provide the updated electronic document to the client for the user in response to the request.