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Methods and apparatus for transacting electronic commerce using account hierarchy and locking of accounts

  • US 7,676,432 B2
  • Filed: 07/08/2003
  • Issued: 03/09/2010
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2003
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A system for facilitating electronic commerce among users, a service provider and vendors, wherein each user has established a primary account with the service provider, the system comprising:

  • a plurality of vendor computers, each vendor computer programmed to provide a website at which a user at a user device may purchase goods or services;

    a service provider computer at which the user has established a primary account, the service provider computer programmed to permit the user to establish a sub-account under the primary account, the primary account and sub-account having a prepaid value in the form of electronic tokenswherein the user may specify a subset of the plurality of vendor computers that are the only vendor computers from which purchases may be made using the sub-account;

    wherein the service provider computer is programmed to permit the user to authorize the sub-account to independently add funds; and

    a communications network enabling the user device to communicate with the plurality of vendor computers;

    wherein the service provider computer is programmed to permit the user to authorize the sub-account to establish a further sub-account subordinate to the sub-account.

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