Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Amdocs Development Limited

Amdocs Qpass Inc.

Qpass, Inc.

D Chase Franklin

Darren B Remington

Mark H McNeely

Ronald R Faith

J Mark Goris

Michael P Cockrill

Timothy J Ryan

Thor A Malek

Andrew P Sweet

William K Bryant

Steven J Siadek

Pierre J Jammes

Daniel Rosen

Daniel Ron Simon

Josh D Benaloh

Bassam A Saliba

Bert Speelpenning

Michael Cockrill

The present invention is directed to a transaction network that facilitates and simplifies purchase transactions between any number of customers and any number of merchants. The transaction network is primarily utilized in the sale and purchase of digital content via a network such as the Internet. The transaction network registers and authenticates customer purchase activities and maintains customer account data including payment information. Once registered, a customer will generally not register again for further purchase activities at participating merchant sites. Additionally, the transaction network provides a single, central authentication mechanism for all participating merchant sites using a single customer identifier and password. Further, the transaction network accumulates purchase information across all of the merchant sites and the ultimate payment processing of those purchase transactions. Payment processing generally occurs on a periodic basis, enabling the accumulation of multiple purchase transactions within a participating customer's account. The network additionally preferably provides customers with centralized, automated services for customer account management, product refunds, subscription management and multiple purchasing accounts linked to the same payment account.

Electronic commerce using a transaction network

The present invention is directed to a transaction network that facilitates and simplifies purchase transactions between any number of customers and any number of merchants. The transaction network is primarily utilized in the sale and purchase of digital content via a network such as the Internet. The transaction network registers and authenticates customer purchase activities and maintains customer account data including payment information. Once registered, a customer will generally not register again for further purchase activities at participating merchant sites. Additionally, the transaction network provides a single, central authentication mechanism for all participating merchant sites using a single customer identifier and password. Further, the transaction network accumulates purchase information across all of the merchant sites and the ultimate payment processing of those purchase transactions. Payment processing generally occurs on a periodic basis, enabling the accumulation of multiple purchase transactions within a participating customer's account. The network additionally preferably provides customers with centralized, automated services for customer account management, product refunds, subscription management, and multiple purchasing accounts linked to the same payment account.

Systems and methods for designing and operating an electronic store are described. Various embodiments describe receiving a request for an electronic store web a e from a web browser. In response to the request, a database query is performed, and product information describing a hierarchical relationship between groups of products is extracted from the database. The extracted product information is related to a first group of products whose previous selection by a user initiated the database query. A web page which includes information describing the relationship between the first group of products and the extracted product information is sent to the requesting web browser, and is configured to enable the web browser to generate a user interface displaying icons arranged to visually represent the relationship.

System and method for designing and operating an electronic store

Systems and methods for designing and operating an electronic store are described. Various embodiments (1) permit a merchant to organize and advertise descriptions of product inventory over the Internet, (2) permit Web page information to be extracted on-demand from a product inventory database, and (3) permit Web pages to be automatically customized to shopping behaviors of individual consumers. In some embodiments, a graphical store design user interface of a Web browser displays a hierarchical representation of products and product groups on an electronic store. A user manipulates icons of the Web browser store design user interface to cause a Web server to modify relationships between products and product groups stored in a product information database. A store designer creates HTML template files, embeds database and customized references within the template files, and assigns template files to groups or products of the electronic store.

Systems and methods for viewing product information, and methods for generating web pages

A system and method for conducting commerce over a distributed network manage merchant and product information in an electronic shopping basket, payment source information in an electronic wallet, and shipping address information in an electronic address book, all of such information being stored on a consumer computer. A commerce client running on the consumer computer is configured as a MIME handler and extends the functionality of a standard Web browser to support computer-based shopping. A merchant site Web server provides HTML-coded Web documents which describe merchant products and which host computer-based shopping options. The HTML-coded Web documents contain function-calling information by which consumer-selected options invoke shopping-related functions on either the merchant (server) computer or the consumer (client) computer. A consumer selects the options from within the Web browser to initiate shopping-related operations such as: retrieve product information from merchants on the World Wide Web, selectively store product information locally on the consumer computer, locally compare product information from different merchants, locally store payment source and shipping address information and selectively forward such information to merchant sites, order products from Web-based merchants, track the status of purchase orders, and receive instructional information on application usage.

System and method for conducting commerce over a distributed network

An online commerce system facilitates online commerce over a public network using an online commerce card. The 'card' does not exist in physical form, but instead exists in digital form. It is assigned a customer account number that includes digits for a prefix number for bank-handling information, digits for a customer identification number, digits reserved for an embedded code number, and a digit for check sum. The bank also gives the customer a private key. During an online transaction, the customer computer retrieves the private key and customer account number from storage. The customer computer generates a code number as a function of the private key, customer-specific data (e.g, card-holder's name, account number, etc.) and transaction-specific data (e.g., transaction amount, merchant ID, goods ID, time, transaction date, etc.). The customer computer embeds the code number in the reserved digits of the customer account number to create a transaction number specific to the transaction. The customer submits that transaction number to the merchant as a proxy for a regular card number. When the merchant submits the number for approval, the issuing institution recognizes it as a proxy transaction number, indexes the customer account record, and looks up the associated private key and customer-specific data. The institution computes a test code number using the same function and input parameters as the customer computer. The issuing institution compares the test code number with the code number embedded in the transaction number. If the two numbers match, the issuing institution accepts the transaction number as valid.

Electronic online commerce card with customer generated transaction

An online commerce system facilitates online commerce over a public network using an online commerce card. The 'card' does not exist in physical form, but instead exists in digital form. The online commerce card is issued electronically to a customer by an issuing institution. The issued card is assigned a permanent customer account number that is maintained on behalf of the customer at the issuing institution to remove the risk of the number being lost or s stolen. When the customer desires to conduct an online transaction, the customer asks the issuing institution to issue a transaction number for a single transaction. The issuing institution generates a temporary transaction number and associates it with the permanent account number in a data record. The customer receives the transaction number and submits that number to the merchant as a proxy for the customer account number. The transaction number looks like a real card number and the merchant handles the transaction number in the same manner as any regular credit card number. When the merchant submits an request for authorization, the issuing institution recognizes the number as a transaction number for an online commerce card. The issuing institution references the customer account number, using the transaction number as an index, and processes the authorization request using the real customer account number in place of the proxy number. Once the authorization request is processed, the issuing institution once again exchanges the transaction number for the customer account number and sends an authorization reply back to the merchant under the transaction number.

Electronic online commerce card with transactionproxy number for online

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

D Chase Franklin