Extended data collection for multi-merchant purchasing environment for downloadable products

• US 8,099,365 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2006
• Issued: 01/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bhambri, Vikram, Warren, Susan Moore, Hempey, Matthew D., Biyani, Raj, Nolan, Sean
• Primary Examiner(s): Reagan, James A
• Application Number:
  US11/426,232
• Publication Number:
  US 20070022017A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,034 Days
• Field of Search: 705 51- 79, 726/1, 380201-204, 380227-230
• US Class Current: 705/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0617 Representative agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

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. The multi-merchant purchasing system may be further configured to accept a request to collect extended user data related to the user on behalf of merchants and return the collected extended user data to the merchants.

Claims

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

identifying a user associated with a commerce application, the commerce application connected through a network with multiple merchants, respective merchants associated with a store separate from others of the multiple merchants;

facilitating a user based purchase of at least two products through the commerce application as a single transaction, the at least two products purchased from at least two of the multiple merchants;

determining which of the at least two purchased products comprises downloadable products purchased by the user through the commerce application, the downloadable products being purchased from at least two of the multiple merchants;

retrieving purchasing information associated with the downloadable products from the at least two multiple merchants, the purchasing information comprising data associated with software activation key licenses associated with the downloadable products;

collecting extended user data associated with the user on behalf of at least one of the multiple merchants;

providing the extended user data to the at least one of the multiple merchants; and

providing the purchasing information to a client application associated with the user.

2. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, comprising:

receiving a request from the client application to perform an operation comprising downloading a purchased downloadable product; and

sending a download link and a hash value to the client application, the download link corresponding to a download location of a merchant associated with the purchased downloadable product.

3. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 2, the requested operation comprising at least one of repeated downloading of the purchased downloadable product, downloading the purchased downloadable product onto multiple computing devices, and upgrading a software activation key license associated with the purchased downloadable product.

4. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 2, comprising updating the purchasing information to comprise the performed operation.

5. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 2, comprising providing information about the performed operation to the merchant associated with the purchased downloadable product corresponding to the operation.

6. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, comprising:

determining configuration information of purchased products corresponding to a computing device associated with the user; and

providing instructions to the client application to automatically image the computing device based, at least in part, on the configuration information.

7. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, comprising authenticating the user before providing the purchasing information to the client application.

8. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, the extended user data formatted as extensible markup language data.

9. The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, the extended user data reduced to a smallest set of extended user data before being provided to the at least one of the multiple merchants.

10. A method in a commerce application comprising:

identifying a user in the commerce application;

facilitating a user based purchase of at least two products through the commerce application as a single transaction, the at least two products being purchased from at least two different merchants;

determining which of the at least two purchased products comprise downloadable products, the downloadable products associated with at least one of the at least two different merchants;

retrieving purchasing information associated with the downloadable products, the purchasing information comprising data associated with licenses associated with the downloadable products;

collecting extended user data associated with the user on behalf of the at least one merchant associated with the downloadable products;

providing the extended user data to the at least one merchant;

providing the purchasing information to a client application associated with the user;

receiving a request to perform an operation comprising downloading at least one of the purchased downloadable products from the user;

downloading at least one purchased downloadable product from the associated merchant when the data associated with a license associated with the purchasing information for the at least one purchased downloadable product permits the download; and

updating the purchasing information comprising the data associated with the license to indicate that the at least one purchased downloadable product has been downloaded.

11. The method of claim 10, comprising:

sending a download link and a hash value to the client application, the download link corresponding to a download location of the associated merchant.

12. The method of claim 10, the requested operation comprising at least one of repeated downloading of the at least one purchased downloadable product, downloading the at least one purchased downloadable product onto multiple computing devices, and upgrading the license associated with at least one the purchased downloadable product.

13. The method of claim 10, comprising providing information about the downloading of the at least one purchased downloadable product to the associated merchant.

14. The method of claim 10, comprising:

determining configuration information of purchased products corresponding to a computing device associated with the user; and

providing instructions to the client application to automatically image the computing device based, at least in part, on the configuration information.

15. The method of claim 10, comprising authenticating the user before providing the purchasing information to the client application.

16. The method of claim 10, the extended user data formatted as extensible markup language data.

17. The method of claim 10, the extended user data reduced to a smallest set of extended user data before being provided to the at least one merchant.