Systems and methods to facilitate repeated purchases

• US 8,774,757 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2013
• Issued: 07/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Boku Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Boku Incorporated
• Inventors: Davis, Kurt, Kim, Jang, Yoo, David, Goodsall, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Ly, Nghi H
• Application Number:
  US13/949,074
• Publication Number:
  US 20130311377A1
• Time in Patent Office: 350 Days
• Field of Search: 455/407, 455/406, 455/466, 455/414, 455/415, 705/14.64
• US Class Current: 455/407
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/16 Payments settled via telecommunication systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/22 Payment schemes or models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3255 using mobile network messaging services for payment, e.g. SMS
• 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

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided to facilitate repeated purchase and payment transactions. In one aspect, a system includes an interchange and a data storage facility configured to store payment transaction records associated with phone numbers. The interchange includes a common format processor and a plurality of converters to interface with a plurality of different controllers of mobile communications. The converters are configured to communicate with the controllers in different formats and to communicate with the common format processor in a common format. The common format processor is configured to identify a prior payment transaction associated with a phone number in response to a message from a mobile phone having the phone number, communicate with a merchant to repeat a purchase according to the prior payment transaction, and transmit via one of the converters premium messages to the mobile phone to collect funds for a payment to repeat the purchase.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

processing, by a computing device, a previous payment transaction by a user of a phone number;

receiving, by a computing device, an authorization from the user of the phone number, the authorization being associated with the previous payment and including an option to authorize a merchant to request a subsequent payment on behalf of the user;

storing, by the computing device, the authorization data in association with the phone number to indicate a user selection of the option;

receiving, by the computing device, a payment request from the merchant;

determining, by the computing device, whether the authorization data is stored in association with the previous payment transaction;

if the authorization data is not stored in association with the previous payment transaction, rejecting, by the computing device, the payment request; and

if the authorization data is stored in association with the previous payment transaction, processing, by the computing device, the payment request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the authorization data is configured to allow the merchant to request a payment to repeat a purchase.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the authorization data is configured to further allow the merchant to request a payment for a purchase different from the purchase associated with the previous payment transaction.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the authorization data is stored in association with the previous payment transaction.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device, a payment request from the merchant to repeat the purchase;

communicating, by the computing device, with the mobile phone to request confirmation of the payment request received from the merchant, if the authorization data is stored in association with the previous payment transaction.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the payment request does not go through a device of the user between being transmitted by the merchant and being received by the computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, in the computing device, a message from a mobile phone having a phone number;

identifying, by the computing device in response to the message, a previous payment transaction processed by the computing device for the phone number;

communicating, by the computing device, with a merchant to repeat a purchase identified according to the previous payment transaction; and

processing, by the computing device, a payment to the merchant using funds associated with the phone number to repeat the purchase.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the identifying of the previous payment transaction comprises identifying a most recent payment transaction associated with the phone number as the previous payment transaction.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the previous payment transaction is identified based on the message.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the message is a reply to a previous message transmitted from the computing device to the mobile phone in connection with the previous payment transaction.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the message received from the mobile phone is received via a short message service (SMS).

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the previous message transmitted from the computing device to the mobile phone includes a code to identify the previous payment transaction.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the message received from the mobile phone includes the code to identify the previous payment transaction.

14. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

communicating, by the computing device, with the mobile phone to request confirmation of a request for the previous payment transaction; and

wherein the payment to repeat the purchase is processed without the computing device communicating with the mobile phone to request confirmation.