Performing automatically authorized programmatic transactions

• US 7,962,415 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2009
• Issued: 06/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vermeulen, Allan H., Gupta, Vikas, Bezos, Jeffrey P., Krause, Duane J., Wei, Eugene, Schappell, David A., Jassy, Andrew R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Reagan; James A
• Application Number:
  US12/543,374
• Publication Number:
  US 20090307107A1
• Time in Patent Office: 665 Days
• Field of Search: 705/51
• US Class Current: 705/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/023 the neutral party being a clearing house
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3672 initialising or reloading thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3821 Electronic credentials
• 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 20/401 Transaction verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

Techniques are described for facilitating interactions between computing systems, such as by performing transactions between parties that are automatically authorized via a third-party transaction authorization system. In some situations, the transactions are programmatic transactions involving the use of fee-based Web services by executing application programs, with the transaction authorization system authorizing and/or providing payments in accordance with private authorization instructions previously specified by the parties. The authorization instructions may include predefined instruction rule sets that regulate conditions under which a potential transaction can be authorized, with the instruction rule sets each referenced by an associated reference token. After one or more of the parties to a potential transaction supply reference tokens for the parties, the transaction authorization system can determine whether to authorize the transaction based on whether the instruction rule sets associated with the reference tokens are compatible or otherwise satisfied.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for automatically authorizing transactions based on predefined instructions, the method comprising:

receiving a request related to a potential transaction that includes at least three distinct parties, the at least three distinct parties including a first party and a second party and a third party, the potential transaction including the second party providing at least one service for a fee to at least one of the first and third parties and including an associated financial payment from at least one of the first and third parties to the second party for the providing of the at least one service;

obtaining a first reference token of the first party, a second reference token of the second party, and a third reference token of the third party, the first, second and third reference tokens being obtained for use in determining whether to authorize the potential transaction, the first reference token being associated with a first predefined payment instruction rule set of the first party that includes one or more rules for determining whether to authorize transactions on behalf of the first party, the second reference token being associated with a second predefined payment instruction rule set of the second party that includes one or more rules for determining whether to authorize transactions on behalf of the second party, and the third reference token being associated with a third predefined payment instruction rule set of the third party that includes one or more rules for determining whether to authorize transactions on behalf of the third party;

under control of one or more configured computing systems, automatically determining to authorize the potential transaction based at least in part on the first, second and third payment instruction rule sets being determined to be compatible; and

facilitating providing by the second party of the at least one service for the potential transaction.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one service is provided to the first party by the second party, and wherein the associated financial payment is from the third party to the second party.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein involvement of the third party in the potential transaction includes only the providing of the associated financial payment to the second party.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the third party is a developer of an application program, wherein the first party is an end-user of the application program, and wherein the second party is a provider of a programmatic service that is used by the application program when executed by the end-user.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the received request is from the application program being executed by the end-user.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the first party is a developer of an application program, wherein the third party is an end-user of the application program, and wherein the second party is a provider of a programmatic service that is used by the application program when executed by the end-user.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising obtaining the associated financial payment from the at least one of the first and third parties, and providing the associated financial payment to the second party.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the potential transaction further includes one or more additional associated financial payments that are each by one of the first party, the second party, the third party, and a transaction authorizer system for the potential transaction, and are each to a distinct one or more of the first party, the second party, the third party and the transaction authorizer system.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one service is provided to the first party by the second party, wherein the associated financial payment is from the first party to the second party, and wherein the third party facilitates interactions between the first and second parties that include the providing of the at least one service.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the one or more configured computing systems are operated under control of the third party, wherein the automatic determining to authorize the potential transaction includes sending an indication to a third-party transaction authorizer for an authorization determination by the transaction authorizer, the sent indication including at least one of the obtained first, second and third reference tokens, the transaction authorizer having access to the first, second and third payment instruction rule sets based on the first, second and third reference tokens, and wherein the facilitating by the third party of the interactions between the first and second parties includes providing an indication of the automatic determination that the potential transaction is authorized.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the obtaining of the third reference token of the third party includes, after the receiving of the request related to the potential transaction, interacting with the transaction authorizer to indicate the third predefined payment instruction rule set, the third predefined payment instruction rule set being indicated by the third party to authorize the potential transaction on behalf of the third party.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more configured computing systems are operated under control of the second party, wherein the at least one service is provided to the first party by the second party, wherein the automatic determining to authorize the potential transaction includes sending an indication to a third-party transaction authorizer for an authorization determination by the transaction authorizer, the sent indication including at least one of the obtained first, second and third reference tokens, the transaction authorizer having access to the first, second and third payment instruction rule sets based on the first, second and third reference tokens, wherein the facilitating of the providing of the at least one service includes providing the at least one service to the first party, and wherein the method further comprises receiving the associated financial payment.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the obtaining of the second reference token of the second party includes, after the receiving of the request related to the potential transaction, interacting with the transaction authorizer to indicate the second predefined payment instruction rule set, the second predefined payment instruction rule set being indicated by the second party to authorize the potential transaction on behalf of the second party.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more configured computing systems are operated under control of the first party, wherein the at least one service is provided to the first party by the second party, wherein the automatic determining to authorize the potential transaction includes sending an indication to a third-party transaction authorizer for an authorization determination by the transaction authorizer, the sent indication including at least one of the obtained first, second and third reference tokens, the transaction authorizer having access to the first, second and third payment instruction rule sets based on the first, second and third reference tokens, and wherein the facilitating of the providing of the at least one service to the first party includes providing an indication that the second party is authorized to provide the at least one service to the first party.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the obtaining of the first reference token of the first party includes, after the receiving of the request related to the potential transaction, interacting with the transaction authorizer to indicate the first predefined payment instruction rule set, the first predefined payment instruction rule set being indicated by the first party to authorize the potential transaction on behalf of the first party.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more configured computing systems are operated under control of a third-party transaction authorizer system that has access to the first, second and third payment instruction rule sets based on the first, second and third reference tokens, wherein the obtaining of the first, second and third reference tokens includes receiving one or more communications from at least one of the first, second and third parties, and wherein the facilitating of the providing of the at least one service includes providing an indication that the potential transaction is determined to be authorized.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the receiving of the request is further performed under control of the one or more configured computing systems operated under the control of the third-party transaction authorizer system, and wherein at least one of the first, second and third predefined payment instruction rule sets is specified by at least one of the first, second and third parties after the receiving of the request.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic determining to authorize the potential transaction is based at least in part on a third-party transaction authorizer system automatically determining to authorize the associated financial payment, and wherein the method further comprises, before the receiving of the request, interacting with the transaction authorizer system to define at least one of the first, second and third payment instruction rule sets and receiving at least one of the first, second and third reference tokens from the transaction authorizer system in response.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the first, second and third payment instruction rule sets each include a plurality of rules that specify criteria for determining whether to authorize the potential transaction, the plurality of rules of each of the payment instruction rule sets including multiple of one or more rules regulating types of transactions that the payment instruction rule set is enabled to authorize, of one or more rules regulating types of payment to be received or provided that the payment instruction rule set is enabled to authorize, and of one or more rules regulating types of parties with whom the payment instruction rule set is enabled to authorize transactions.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first, second and third parties each has multiple distinct payment instruction rule sets that have multiple distinct associated reference tokens, and wherein at least one the first, second and third reference tokens are selected by at least one of the first, second and third parties for use with the potential transaction from multiple available reference tokens.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the facilitating of the providing of the at least one service is performed before the automatic determining that the potential transaction is authorized.

22. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents configure a computing system to automatically authorize transactions based on predefined instructions, by performing a method comprising:

receiving an indication of a transaction between distinct first and second parties that includes the second party providing one or more services associated with the transaction to the first party in exchange for an associated financial payment from a distinct third party;

receiving indications of at least one of a first reference for the first party, a second reference for the second party and a third reference for the third party, the indicated at least one references being for use in determining whether to authorize the transaction and each having an associated usage instruction rule set;

obtaining an indication from a transaction authorization system distinct from the first, second and third parties to authorize the transaction based on the associated usage instruction rule set for each of the indicated at least one references being automatically determined to be satisfied; and

providing an indication that the transaction is determined to be authorized so as to facilitate the transaction.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the received indications of the at least one references include indications of multiple of the first, second and third references, the first reference being associated with a first usage instruction rule set and the second reference being associated with a distinct second usage instruction rule set and the third reference being associated with a distinct third usage instruction rule set, and wherein the indication from the transaction authorization system to authorize the transaction is based at least in part on an automated determination by the transaction authorization system that the usage instruction rule set associated with each of the indicated multiple references is satisfied for the transaction.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the third party is further part of the transaction.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the method is performed by the first party, and wherein the method further comprises receiving the provided one or more services from the second party.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the method is performed by the second party, and wherein the method further comprises receiving the associated financial payment and providing the one or more services to the first party.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the method is performed by the third party, and wherein the method further comprises providing the associated financial payment.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the method is performed by the transaction authorization system, and wherein the providing of the indication that the transaction is determined to be authorized includes providing the indication to at least one of the first, second and third parties.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein one or more of the indicated at least one references is a reference token that is dynamically generated for use with the transaction and whose associated usage instruction rule set is based at least in part on instructions specified for the transaction.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the computing system, and wherein the contents are at least one of instructions that when executed cause the computing system to perform the method and one or more data structures for use in automatically authorizing transactions between parties, the one or more data structures comprising one or more entries that each corresponds to a usage instruction rule set associated with a party and contains an indication of a unique associated reference token and of indications of multiple rules for the usage instruction rule set.

31. A computing device configured to automatically authorize transactions based on predefined instructions, comprising:

one or more processors;

a transaction requester component that is configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, and after receiving a request to authorize a transaction between first and second parties and receiving indications of a first reference token of the first party and a second reference token of the second party for use in determining whether to authorize the transaction, automatically obtain a determination as to whether first and second payment instruction rule sets associated with the first and second reference tokens are satisfied so as to authorize the transaction, the transaction including providing functionality to the first party of one or more services from the second party, and the received request being from a third party that facilitates performance of the transaction on behalf of at least one of the first and second parties; and

a transaction performer component that is configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, and after the first and second payment instruction rule sets are determined to be satisfied, initiate performance of at least a portion of the transaction.

32. The computing device of claim 31 wherein the automatic obtaining of the determination as to whether the first and second payment instruction rule sets are satisfied so as to authorize the transaction includes automatically determining that the transaction is further authorized based in part on a third payment instruction rule set associated with a third reference token of the third party being satisfied for the transaction.

33. The computing device of claim 32 wherein the third party is further part of the transaction.

34. The computing device of claim 31 wherein the transaction requester component and the transaction performer component each include software instructions for execution by the one or more processors of the computing device.

35. The computing device of claim 31 wherein the transaction requester component consists of a means for, after receiving a request to authorize a transaction between first and second parties and receiving indications of a first reference token of the first party and a second reference token of the second party for use in determining whether to authorize the transaction, automatically obtaining a determination as to whether first and second payment instruction rule sets associated with the first and second reference tokens are satisfied so as to authorize the transaction, the transaction including providing functionality to the first party of one or more services from the second party, and the received request being from a third party that facilitates performance of the transaction on behalf of at least one of the first and second parties, and wherein the transaction performer component consists of a means for, after the first and second payment instruction rule sets are determined to be satisfied, initiating performance of at least the portion of the transaction.