Add License Anonymously To Product Locker For Multi-Merchant Purchasing Environment

• US 20070027779A1
• Filed: 06/23/2006
• Published: 02/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nolan, Sean, Bhambri, Vikram, Biyani, Raj, Warren, Anne, McNamee, Kenneth, Kaykas-Wolff, Jascha, Vigna, Christopher, Peterson, Leonard
• Application Number:
  US11/426,235
• Publication Number:
  US 20070027779A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• 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. 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 accept product license information from third party merchants not fully participating in the multi-merchant purchasing system. More specifically, a third party merchant may store product license information related to a user in the multi-merchant purchasing system such that the user may connect to the multi-merchant purchasing system at any time and manage all the user'"'"'s product licenses in one central location.

Claims

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

receiving product information associated with a user;

storing the product information in a storage associated with the user;

notifying the user the product information has been stored;

receiving an acceptance status associated with the product information from the user; and

changing an acceptance status associated with the stored product information in response to receiving the acceptance status from the user.

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

receiving an email address associated with the user.

3. ) The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the product information is received from the user.

4. ) The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, further comprising creating storage associated with the user in response to a determination that no storage associated with the user exists.

5. ) The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein notifying the user comprising sending an email message to the user.

6. ) The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the product information is received over a secure connection.

7. ) The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, further comprising authenticating the user before receiving the product information.

8. ) The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the product information is received from a third party on behalf of the user.

9. ) The one or more device-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the product information is product license information associated with a product purchased by the user.

10. ) A system for receiving product information associated with a user comprising:

a secure connection to accept product information associated with users;

a data store to store the product information associated with users, the product information including license information associated with products purchased by each users, the purchased products being purchased from a third party merchant;

a notification module, to send a notification to the users indicating the product information has been received, the notification further requesting an acceptance status from the users; and

a locker module configured to display an acceptance status related to the product information, the locker module further configured to receive a user acceptance status from the users, the locker module further configured to modify the acceptance status based on the user acceptance status.

11. ) The system as recited in claim 10, further comprising a user authentication module for authenticating the users.

12. ) The system as recited in claim 10, further comprising a third party merchant authentication module for authenticating the third party merchant.

13. ) The system as recited in claim 10, wherein the product information includes license information associated with the product.

14. ) The system as recited in claim 10, wherein the data store receives production information related to more than one product associated with a user.

15. ) The system as recited in claim 10, wherein the data store is configured as a database or a Structured Query Language (SQL. database system.

16. ) The system as recited in claim 10, wherein at least one of the locker module and notification module is configured as a web service.