Importance

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Abstract

A method for charging a consumer for access, over a network, to a vendor's information; in particular, a method for this pay-per-access over the Internet. The method uses a third-party, called a banker, to mint tokens identified with particular information a consumer might want to purchase. The tokens are immediately available to the consumer because of the consumer's having already established an account with the banker, and purchased what are here called credit units, which can have a value of only a fraction of a cent, allowing vendors to charge very little for access to their information. A token is pre-authorization for a consumer to pay for access for a particular page of information. In one embodiment, when a consumer makes a purchase, i.e. chooses to access a Web page for which a vendor makes a charge, the transaction is routed through the banker, which charges in credit units (those already on account), and credits the vendor account. The vendor later redeems for payment whatever credit units have been credited to the vendor's banker account, not necessarily only those credit units resulting from transactions with a particular consumer. In another embodiment, a vendor uses a franker to test if a token is valid; this enables the vendor to collect a token from a consumer and later redeem it for payment with a banker. The method also allows for a vendor and consumer to have accounts with different bankers.

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First Claim