System and Method for Authorizing and Connecting Application Developers and Users

• US 20130072160A1
• Filed: 09/21/2012
• Published: 03/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Lawson, Jeffrey, Cooke, Evan, Stratton, Frank, Milliron, Timothy S., Nowack, Matthew David
• Granted Patent: US 9,336,500 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1078 Logging; Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/705 Account settings, e.g. limits or numbers or payment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

A system and method for authorizing application use of a user that can include creating a developer account associated with an application of an application platform; receiving an authorization request to authorize the application to act on a user account; creating a subaccount of a user, wherein the subaccount is associated with the developer account; creating an authorization record, that includes setting a permission profile for the subaccount; and returning a subaccount identifier to the developer.

Claims

1. A method for authorizing application use for a user comprising:

creating a developer account associated with an application of an application platform;

receiving an authorization request to authorize the application to act on a user account;

creating a subaccount of the user account, wherein the subaccount is associated with the developer account;

creating an authorization record, that includes setting a permission profile for the subaccount; and

returning a subaccount identifier to the developer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a developer account and creating a subaccount occurs at the application platform, and the application platform manages a telephony voice application API.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein creating a developer account and creating a subaccount occurs at the application platform, and the application platform manages a telephony messaging API.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the permission profile determines read-only and read-write API access permissions of the application to operate on the subaccount of the user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the read-only API access permissions define permissions to access data in the user account and at least a second subaccount of the user account.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the read-write API calls include usage metered API calls.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the usage metered API calls include making a telephony call and sending a text message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the permission profile determines application usage limits for API access to the subaccount.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the set permission profile of the subaccount is based on a permission profile of an application of the developer.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the developer account is a subaccount associated with a second developer account.

11. method of claim 1, wherein creating a subaccount includes if the user has a user account with the communication platform, executing a login of the user account;

if the user does not have an account creating a user account and executing a login of the user account; and

wherein the created subaccount is a subaccount of the logged in user account.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving an authorization request occurs through at least one API call made by a developer.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein setting a permission profile, includes determining user approval of authorization granted to the developer account;

and if user approval is denied, canceling creation of the subaccount and the authorization record.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing subaccount usage by the application in accordance with the authorization record.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein setting a permission profile, includes determining user approval of a plurality of permissions;

and wherein allowing subaccount usage is in accordance with the plurality of permissions of the authorization record; and

wherein the a permission may have independent user approval

19. The method of claim 17, wherein allowing subaccount usage by the application includes receiving an API call that includes the subaccount identifier and a token of the developer account.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein allowing subaccount usage by the application further includes using the subaccount identifier and token of the developer account to access a permission profile from the corresponding authorization record;

and completing the API call in accordance with the permission profile of the subaccount.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the API call is a read-only call for the application to access data of the subaccount.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the API call is a read-write call for the application to perform an action on the application platform.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising at the application platform, metering usage of the subaccount and receiving compensation from the user account for the usage of the subaccount.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising at the application platform, retrieving market fees from the user account and dispersing market fees to the developer account.

12. The method of Claim ii, wherein creating a subaccount further includes upgrading a user account if the user account does not satisfy requirements of the application.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein upgrading a user account includes assigning a telephony endpoint to the user account.

14. The method of Claim ii, wherein receiving an authorization request occurs at an application platform website.