Systems and methods for facilitating financial transactions over a network

• US 8,224,702 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2007
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Mengerink, Matthew, Mardikar, Upendra, Gausebeck, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Dass, Harish T
• Assistant Examiner(s): MADAMBA, CLIFFORD B
• Application Number:
  US11/966,743
• Publication Number:
  US 20090171810A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,663 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

Systems and methods for facilitating financial transactions over a network include a merchant device, a client device and a payment processing device. The merchant device is adapted to allow a merchant to provide items for purchase via the network. The client device is adapted to allow a user to access the merchant device via the network and view the items for purchase. The client device is adapted to provide a payment mechanism to the user. The user generates a purchase request for an item by selecting the one item, dragging the item to the payment mechanism, and dropping the item over the payment mechanism. The payment processing device is adapted to receive the purchase request from the client device via the network and authorize the user to purchase the item from the merchant based on information passed with the purchase request.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating financial transactions over a network, the system comprising:

a communication component of a payment provider communicating with a user via a client device over the network and a merchant via a merchant device over a network;

a hardware processing component of the payment provider comprising a computer processor receiving an invoice image corresponding to an invoice bill from the user via the client device over the network and receiving a payment method selected by the user to combine with the invoice bill that consummates a financial transaction between the user and the merchant and notifies the merchant that the financial transaction is complete, wherein the payment provider is a separate entity from the merchant and the user and provides online payment services for the user, and

a storage component storing a plurality of accounts including a user account related to the user and a merchant account related to the merchant, wherein the user account includes user information related to the user and the merchant account includes merchant information related to the merchant, and wherein the user information and merchant information are passed with the purchase request;

wherein the hardware processing component provides a service application to the user on the user device as a payment mechanism, verifies the user information including accessing the user account based on the user information passed with purchase request to verify the availability of monetary funds in the user account for the at least one item selected for purchase, and verifies the merchant information including accessing the merchant account based on the merchant information passed with the invoice image and availability of the at least one item selected for purchase;

wherein the service application generates the invoice image from a selected list of at least one item from the merchant device after the merchant generates the invoice bill for the selected list of the at least one item and processes the financial transaction when the user drag-and-drops the invoice image to a service icon installed on or in the user device through the service application,

wherein the invoice image comprises an image attribute having dynamic arguments identifying the invoice bill related to the selected list of the at least one item selected for purchase, and

wherein the payment mechanism automatically transmits an invoice identifier identifying the invoice bill along with a user identifier identifying the user and a merchant identifier identifying the merchant to the processing component for automatic processing of the financial transaction without the user having to provide user account information directly to the merchant.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the merchant device provides one or more items for purchase via the network in the form of self-contained invoice.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the client device includes a browser application accessing the merchant device via the network and viewing the one or more items for purchase.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the service icon comprises at least one of a desktop icon, a toolbar icon and a browser icon displayed on a display component of the client device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing component processes the purchase request by deducting monetary funds from the user account.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing component processes the purchase request by crediting the monetary funds to the merchant account.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein information passed with the purchase request includes information related to the at least one item selected for purchase.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the merchant device comprises a server communicating with the client device and the processing component via the network, and wherein the merchant device communicates with the processing component to receive notification that the user paid for the invoice bill corresponding to the invoice image via the network.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the system comprises a server communicating with the client device and the merchant device via the network.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing component provides the service application to the client device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the client device comprises a computer communicating with the merchant device and the processing component via the network.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the items for purchase include at least one of goods, products and services.

13. A system for facilitating financial transactions over a network, the system comprising:

a communication component of a payment provider comprising a computer processor communicating with a user via a client device over the network and a merchant via a merchant device over a network, the merchant device providing one or more items for purchase via the network and generate an invoice bill image corresponding to an invoice bill summarizing at least one item selected for purchase by the user;

a hardware processing component of the payment provider receiving the invoice bill image from the user via the client device over the network and authorize the user to purchase the at least one item selected for purchase from the merchant based on information passed with the invoice bill image, wherein the payment provider is a separate entity from the merchant and the user and provides online payment services for the user;

an

a storage component storing a plurality of accounts including a user account related to the user and a merchant account related to the merchant, wherein the user account includes user information related to the user and the merchant account includes merchant information related to the merchant, and wherein the user information and merchant information are passed with the purchase request,

wherein the hardware processing component provides a service application to the user on the user device as a payment mechanism, verifies the user information including accessing the user account based on the user information passed with purchase request to verify the availability of monetary funds in the user account for the at least one item selected for purchase, and verifies the merchant information including accessing the merchant account based on the merchant information passed with the invoice image and availability of the at least one item selected for purchase,

wherein the service application processes the financial transaction when the user selects the at least one item for purchase, instructs the merchant device to generate the invoice bill image summarizing purchase of the at least one item selected for purchase, drags the merchant generated invoice bill image to a service icon installed on or in the user device through the service application, and drops the merchant generated invoice bill image into the service icon,

wherein the invoice bill image comprises an image attribute having dynamic arguments identifying the invoice bill related to the at least one item selected for purchase by the user, and

wherein the payment mechanism automatically transmits an invoice identifier identifying the invoice bill along with a user identifier identifying the user and a merchant identifier identifying the merchant to the processing component for automatic processing of the purchase request without the user having to provide user account information directly to the merchant.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the client device includes a browser application accessing the merchant device via the network and viewing the one or more items for purchase.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the invoice bill image comprises embedded information related to the purchase including at least one of item selection information, item availability information, purchase information, and merchant identification information.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the invoice bill image comprises an invoice image displayed by the browser application on the client device.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one item selected for purchase are listed by the merchant device in a virtual shopping cart, and wherein the invoice bill image is generated based on information related to the virtual shopping cart.

18. A method for facilitating financial transactions over a network, the method comprising:

at a server of a payment provider, providing a service application to a user on a client device, wherein the service application provides a payment icon on the client device as a purchase mechanism to the user via the client device operated by the user;

at a server of the payment provider, communicating with the user via the client device over the network and a merchant via a merchant device over the network to process a financial transaction between the user and the merchant, wherein the payment provider is a separate entity from the merchant and the user and provides online payment services for the user;

at a server of the payment provider, receiving an invoice image from the user via the client device over the network and an invoice identifier identifying the invoice bill along with a user identifier identifying the user and a merchant identifier identifying the merchant, the invoice image corresponding to an invoice bill generated by the merchant for an item selected for purchase by the user, the invoice image being received from the client device by the user dragging-and-dropping the invoice image over the payment icon displayed on the client device, the invoice image including user information, merchant information, and selected item information embedded as dynamic arguments in an expression;

at a server of the payment provider, maintaining a plurality of accounts including a user account and a merchant account, wherein the user account includes financial information related to the user and the merchant account includes financial information related to the merchant;

at a server of the payment provider, verifying the user information including accessing the user account based on the user information to verify the availability of monetary funds for the selected item;

at a server of the payment provider, verifying the merchant information including accessing the merchant account based on the merchant information and availability of the selected item related to the selected item information;

at a server of the payment provider, automatically processing the financial transaction by accessing the invoice bill corresponding to the invoice image and authorizing the user to purchase the selected item from the merchant based on the verified user and merchant information without the user having to provide user account information directly to the merchant, and

at a server of the payment provider, completing the financial transaction by deducting monetary funds from the user account and crediting the deducted monetary funds to the merchant account.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the service application comprises a computer program executable by a processor on the client device.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the purchase mechanism comprises an image.