Third-Party Billing System and Method

Abstract

A third-party billing system and method permits consumers to conduct e-commerce transactions (including microtransactions) securely and anonymously by providing billing and personal information to the third party billing system rather than to merchants. A consumer initiates a transaction by placing an order for a product. The consumer then authorizes the transaction by transmitting an authorization code to a billing computer. The authorization code identifies the consumer billing account to which the transaction is to be charged. The authorization code can also authenticate the consumer through use of a PIN. Multiple consumers can charge transactions to one billing account, in which case each consumer can be assigned a different PIN with restrictions that limit that consumer's use of the account. The billing computer then verifies the authorization code and transmits an approval code to the merchant computer. To fulfill the transaction, the consumer sends a fulfillment request and a consumer identifier to the merchant computer. The consumer identifier can be anonymous, meaning that it identifies only the destination to which the product is to be delivered. If that consumer identifier matches a second consumer identifier that the consumer sends to the billing computer, the merchant computer then delivers the product to the consumer. The billing computer can charge the transaction to the consumer billing account directly, or it can aggregate the transaction for later charging of an aggregated total. The billing computer can also obtain a charge pre-authorization to ensure that the billing account can accommodate the charging of aggregated transactions.

1 - 61 . (canceled) 
   
   
       62 . A billing computer connected to a consumer and a merchant computer by a computer network comprising:
 a network interface for connecting to the computer network;   a consumer billing authority interface for connecting to a consumer billing authority;   a transaction memory for storing transaction information;   an account database for storing consumer account information;   a comparator for determining whether to approve transactions;   a controller for conducting a transaction including the purchased of a product or service by charging the value of the product or service to a consumer billing account; and wherein the billing computer does not transmit information identifying the consumer billing account to the merchant computer and does not receive information identifying the consumer billing account from the merchant computer.   
   
   
       63 . The billing computer of  claim 62 , further comprising a predefined database cont predefined transaction descriptions. 
   
   
       64 . The billing computer of  claim 62 , further comprising an aggregation memory for storing previously completed transactions that are to be aggregated together into one or more billing events for submission to the consumer billing authority. 
   
   
       65 . The billing computer of  claim 62 , wherein the controller performs the steps of:
 (1) initiating the transaction for the product or service;   (2) storing information about the transaction in the transaction memory;   (3) receiving an authorization code from the consumer indicating authorization to conduct the transaction;   (4) determining whether to approve the transaction using the computer by considering the authorization code and the consumer account information in the account database; and   5) if the transaction is approved, performing the further steps of:   6) transmitting approval to conduct the transaction to the merchant computer;   7) fulfilling the transaction; and   8) communicating with the consumer billing authority to charge the transaction to the consumer billing account.   
   
   
       66 . The billing computer of  claim 63 , wherein the controller performs the steps of:
 (1) initiating the transaction for the product or service based upon a predefined transaction description in the predefined database;   2) storing information about the transaction in the transaction memory;   3) receiving an authorization code from the consumer indicating authorization to conduct the transaction;   4) determining whether to approve the transaction by considering the authorization code and the consumer account information in the account database; and   5) if the transaction is approved, performing the further steps of:   6) transmitting approval to conduct the transaction to the merchant computer;   7) fulfilling the transaction; and   8) communicating with the consumer billing authority to charge the transaction to the consumer billing account.   
   
   
       67 . The billing computer of  claim 64 , wherein the controller performs the steps of:
 (1) initiating the transaction for the product or service;   (2) storing information about the transaction in the transaction memory;   (3) receiving an authorization code from the consumer indicating authorization to conduct the transaction;   (4) determining whether to approve the transaction by considering the authorization code and the consumer account information in the account database;   (5) if the transaction is approved, performing the steps of
 (a) transmitting approval to conduct the transaction to the merchant computer; and 
 (b) fulfilling the transaction; and wherein the controller performs the further steps of: 
   (6) storing the transaction in the aggregation memory;   (7) aggregating into an aggregate total the transaction with one or more previously completed transactions stored in the aggregation memory; and   (8) communication with the consumer billing authority to charge the aggregate total to the consumer billing account as one or more billing events.