Performing automatically authorized programmatic transactions

• US 8,150,769 B2
• Filed: 08/17/2009
• Issued: 04/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gupta, Vikas, Vermeulen, Allan H., Wei, Eugene, Jassy, Andrew R., Bezos, Jeffrey P., Krause, Duane J., Schappell, David A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elisca, Pierre E
• Application Number:
  US12/542,543
• Publication Number:
  US 20090307135A1
• Time in Patent Office: 960 Days
• Field of Search: 705/44, 705/65, 705/66, 705/67
• US Class Current: 705/44
• 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 between a first party and a second party that includes at least one first term specified by the second party and at least one second term specified by the first party;

obtaining a first reference token of the first party, the first reference token being associated with a first predefined usage instruction rule set of the first party;

obtaining a second reference token of the second party, the second reference token being associated with a second predefined usage instruction rule set of the second party; and

under control of one or more configured computing systems, automatically authorizing the potential transaction based at least in part on determining that the first and second usage instruction rule sets are compatible, such that each of the at least one first terms are automatically accepted on behalf of the first party and such that each of the at least one second terms are automatically accepted on behalf of the second party; and

facilitating performance of the potential transaction.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the potential transaction includes the second party providing at least one of a service and of a product to the first party, and wherein the at least one first terms and the at least one second terms are part of one or more transaction terms associated with the potential transaction that relate to one or more aspects of the providing of the at least one of the service and the product.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein access to the at least one of the service and the product is restricted, and wherein the one or more associated transaction terms include terms to which the first party must agree in order to gain access to the at least one of the service and the product.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one of the service and the product includes a service that provides access to information having restricted access, and wherein the one or more associated transaction terms include terms to which the first party must agree in order to gain access to the information.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the one or more associated transaction terms relate to procedures for dispute resolution for any disputes that later arise regarding the potential transaction.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the potential transaction does not include any financial payments, and wherein the one or more associated transaction terms do not relate to any of financial payments, information about parties to the potential transaction, and a type of the potential transaction.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the one or more associated transaction terms include contractual terms and conditions.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the providing of the at least one of the service and the product by the second party to the first party is in exchange for an associated financial payment from the first party to the second party, and wherein at least one of the first and second predefined usage instruction rule sets include one or more rules for use in determining whether the first and second parties agree to a proposed manner of making the associated financial payment.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising obtaining the associated financial payment from the first party and providing the associated financial payment to the second party.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the potential transaction includes multiple associated financial payments that are each by one of the first party, the second party, a third party related to the potential transaction, 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.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the at least one first terms and the at least one second terms relate to authorizing an event.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one first terms and the at least one second terms are part of one or more transaction terms associated with the potential transaction, wherein the potential transaction is to reach agreement on the one or more associated transaction terms, and wherein the facilitating of the performance of the potential transaction includes recording accepting of each of the one or more associated transaction terms for the potential transaction on behalf of at least one of the first and second parties based on the automatic authorizing.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second usage instruction rule sets each includes multiple rules regulating at least one of whether to provide to another party access to information as part of the potential transaction and of whether to receive from another party access to information as part of the potential transaction.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the first predefined usage instruction rule set of the first party includes one or more rules for use in determining whether to authorize transactions on behalf of the first party, wherein the second predefined usage instruction rule set of the second party includes one or more rules for use in determining whether to authorize transactions on behalf of the second party, and wherein the automatic authorizing includes determining that the rules included in each of the first and second usage instruction rule sets are satisfied for the potential transaction.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the first predefined usage instruction rule set of the first party includes one or more rules for use in determining whether to authorize transactions on behalf of the first party, wherein the second predefined usage instruction rule set of the second party includes one or more rules for use in determining whether to authorize transactions on behalf of the second party, and wherein the automatic authorizing includes at least one of interactively querying the first party to obtain confirmation of an automated evaluation of at least one of the rules included in the first usage instruction rule set and of interactively querying the second party to obtain confirmation of an automated evaluation of at least one of the rules included in the second usage instruction rule set.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more configured computing systems are operated under control of the second party, and wherein the automatic authorizing includes sending an indication to a third-party transaction authorizer for an authorization determination by the transaction authorizer based at least in part on the first usage instruction rule set that the first party agrees to the at least one first terms.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the obtaining of the second reference token includes, after the receiving of the request related to the potential transaction, interacting with the transaction authorizer to indicate the second predefined usage instruction rule set, the second predefined usage instruction rule set being indicated by the second party to authorize the potential transaction with the first party on behalf of the second party.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more configured computing systems are operated under control of the first party, and wherein the automatic authorizing includes sending an indication to a third-party transaction authorizer for an authorization determination by the transaction authorizer based at least in part on the second usage instruction rule set that the second party agrees to the at least one second terms.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the obtaining of the first reference token includes, after the receiving of the request related to the potential transaction, interacting with the transaction authorizer to indicate the first predefined usage instruction rule set, the first predefined usage instruction rule set being indicated by the first party to authorize the potential transaction with the second party on behalf of the first party.

20. 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 and second usage instruction rule sets based on the first and second reference tokens, wherein at least one of the obtaining of the first reference token of the first party and of the obtaining of the second reference token of the second party includes receiving one or more communications from at least one of the first and second parties, and wherein the facilitating of the performance of the potential transaction includes providing an indication that the potential transaction is determined to be authorized.

21. The method of claim 20 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 predefined usage instruction rule set and of the second predefined usage instruction rule set are specified by at least one of the first and second parties after the receiving of the request.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic authorizing is based at least in part on an automated determination by a third-party transaction authorizer system, 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 usage instruction rule set and the second usage instruction rule set and receiving at least one of the first reference token and the second reference token from the transaction authorizer system in response.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second usage instruction rule sets each include one or more rules regulating types of transactions that the usage instruction rule set is enabled to authorize, regulating post-transaction modification conditions that the usage instruction rule set is enabled to authorize, regulating types of payment to be received or provided that the usage instruction rule set is enabled to authorize, and regulating types of parties with whom the usage instruction rule set is enabled to authorize transactions.

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

25. 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 to the first party access to restricted information;

receiving indications of at least one of a first reference for the first party and of a second reference for the second 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 and second 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.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the transaction has one or more associated terms that include at least one of one or more first terms for agreement to by the first party and one or more second terms for agreement to by the second party, 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 each of the one or more associated terms for the transaction is automatically accepted on behalf of at least one of the first and second parties, the automated determination by the transaction authorization system being based on the associated usage instruction rule set for each of one or more of the indicated at least one references.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26 wherein the received indications of the at least one references include indications of at least the first reference and of the second reference, 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 wherein the automated determination by the transaction authorization system includes determining that the first and second usage instruction rule sets are each satisfied for the transaction.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the method is performed by the first party, wherein the providing of indication that the transaction is determined to be authorized includes obtaining the provided access to the restricted information from the second party, and wherein the method further comprises providing an associated financial payment for the transaction.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein the method is performed by the second party, and wherein the providing of indication that the transaction is determined to be authorized includes providing the access to the restricted information to the first party.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25 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 and second parties.

31. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25 wherein at least one of the first and second 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.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25 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.

33. 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 one or more indications of a transaction between first and second parties and of a first reference of the first party and a second reference of the second party for use in determining whether to authorize the transaction, automatically obtain a determination as to whether first and second usage instruction rule sets associated with the first and second references are satisfied so as to authorize the transaction, the transaction including the second party providing functionality to the first party in a specified manner without any associated financial payments; 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 usage instruction rule sets are determined to be satisfied, initiate performance of at least a portion of the transaction.

34. The computing device of claim 33 wherein the transaction has one or more associated terms that include at least one of one or more first terms for agreement to by the first party and one or more second terms for agreement to by the second party, and wherein the automatic obtaining of the determination as to whether the first and second usage instruction rule sets are satisfied so as to authorize the transaction includes automatically determining that each of the one or more associated terms for the transaction is automatically accepted on behalf of at least one of the first and second parties based on the first and second usage instruction rule sets.

35. The computing device of claim 33 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.

36. The computing device of claim 33 wherein the transaction requester component consists of a means for, after receiving one or more indications of a transaction between first and second parties and of a first reference of the first party and a second reference of the second party for use in determining whether to authorize the transaction, automatically obtaining a determination as to whether first and second usage instruction rule sets associated with the first and second references are satisfied so as to authorize the transaction, the transaction including the second party providing functionality to the first party in a specified manner without any associated financial payments, and wherein the transaction performer component consists of a means for, after the first and second usage instruction rule sets are determined to be satisfied, initiating performance of at least the portion of the transaction.