Methods and systems for transaction record delivery using thresholds and multi-stage protocol

• US 8,667,134 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2012
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intertrust Technologies Corporation (Fidelio Acquisition Co LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intertrust Technologies Corporation (Fidelio Acquisition Co LLC)
• Inventors: Strohwig, Marc E., McGinty, John M., Sibert, W. Olin
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Quang N
• Application Number:
  US13/678,330
• Publication Number:
  US 20130073441A1
• Time in Patent Office: 474 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/223, 709/224, 709/228, 705/51, 713/194, 726/1
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1077 Recurrent authorisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2151 Time stamp
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2153 Using hardware token as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/023 the neutral party being a clearing house
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/389 Keeping log of transactions for guaranteeing non-repudiation of a transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/403 Solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/42 Confirmation, e.g. check or permission by the legal debtor of payment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• 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 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 : using third party service providers

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for conducting electronic transactions in a distributed computing environment. A communications protocol is provided that enables reliable transactional state synchronization for peers participating in a distributed transaction. A transaction processing application is deployed on a local computer system to manage transactions thereon. The local computer system contacts a remote computer system to obtain authorization to execute a transaction. The local computer system initiates a failure-recovery job that is operable to automatically resend status signals and other information to the remote system if the communication with the remote system exhibits certain predefined fault conditions. The remote system is able to dynamically adjust the definition of the predefined fault conditions. If the transaction concludes without triggering the predefined fault conditions, the failure-recovery job is cancelled. The transaction processing application may also allow deferred transactions between remote parties. The transaction processing application maintains a record of the transactions performed by the consumer on the consumer'"'"'s local system. Upon the occurrence of predefined conditions, transactional records are sent to a remote vendor or clearinghouse. The vendor or clearinghouse can manage the risk it bears by setting the predefined conditions appropriately.

Claims

1. A method for managing the transmission of transaction audit records from a first computer system to a clearinghouse, the method comprising:

generating an audit record at the first computer system;

in response to generating the audit record, incrementing a first count of a number of audit records accumulated at the first computer system;

comparing the first count with a first predefined threshold value;

transmitting a predefined number of audit records to the clearinghouse;

receiving a signal from the clearinghouse, the signal including a time indicator;

at a time specified by the time indicator, sending a request to the clearinghouse to transmit one or more acknowledgements relating to audit records;

receiving a first acknowledgement from the clearinghouse and decrementing the first count in response to the first acknowledgement;

maintaining a second count of a value of unpaid transactions conducted at the first computer system, the value of unpaid transactions forming part of said audit records;

receiving a second acknowledgement from the clearinghouse; and

decrementing the second count in response to the second acknowledgement.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before the step of receiving a second acknowledgement from the clearinghouse;

accumulating the value of unpaid transactions;

comparing the second count with a second predefined threshold value; and

transmitting at least part of the accumulated value of unpaid transactions to the clearinghouse.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining that the second count is greater than the second predefined threshold value; and

in response to the determination, disallowing a transaction request.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining that the first count is greater than the first predefined threshold value; and

in response to the determination, disallowing a transaction request.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining that the first count is greater than the first predefined threshold value and the second count is greater than the second predefined threshold value, and

in response to the determination, disallowing a transaction request.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the audit record at the first computer system comprises generating an audit record at the first computer system corresponding to a predefined money value.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the audit record at the first computer system comprises generating an audit record at the first computer system corresponding to a plurality of transactions.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first predefined threshold value corresponds to a predefined money value.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor included in a first computer system, cause the first computer system to:

generate an audit record at the first computer system;

increment a first count of a number of audit records accumulated at the first computer system in response to generating the audit record;

compare the first count with a first predefined threshold value;

transmit a predefined number of audit records to a clearinghouse;

receive a signal from the clearinghouse, the signal including a time indicator;

at a time specified by the time indicator, send a request to the clearinghouse to transmit one or more acknowledgements relating to audit records;

receive a first acknowledgement from the clearinghouse and decrement the first count in response to the first acknowledgement;

maintain a second count of a value of unpaid transactions conducted at the first computer system, the value of unpaid transactions forming part of said audit records;

receive a second acknowledgement from the clearinghouse; and

decrement the second count in response to the second acknowledgement.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the first computer system to:

before receiving a second acknowledgement from the clearinghouse;

accumulate the value of unpaid transactions;

compare the second count with a second predefined threshold value; and

transmit at least part of the accumulated value of unpaid transactions to the clearinghouse.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the first computer system to:

determine that the second count is greater than the second predefined threshold value; and

in response to the determination, disallow a transaction request.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the first computer system to:

determine that the first count is greater than the first predefined threshold value; and

in response to the determination, disallow a transaction request.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the first computer system to:

determine that the first count is greater than the first predefined threshold value and the second count is greater than the second predefined threshold value, and

in response to the determination, disallow a transaction request.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein generating the audit record at the first computer system comprises generating an audit record at the first computer system corresponding to a predefined money value.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein, wherein generating the audit record at the first computer system comprises generating an audit record at the first computer system corresponding to a plurality of transactions.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein, wherein the first predefined threshold value corresponds to a predefined money value.