Electronic bill presentment and payment system which deters cheating by employing hashes and digital signatures
US6049786A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 22, 1997 |
| Grant date | Apr 11, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 22, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06Q20/401
- WIPO fieldIT methods for management
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An electronic bill presentment and payment system includes multiple biller computers, a bill presentment computer, and multiple customer computers. Each biller computer stores complete bills for the customer of a corresponding biller, and the bill presentment computer stores a respective summary of each complete bill along with a hash of that complete bill which is digitally signed by the biller computer. Each particular customer computer makes a payment on a selected complete bill by generating a payment message which includes a) the hash of the selected complete bill digitally signed by the biller computer, and b) an authorization to pay a specified amount of funds on the selected complete bill, both of which are digitally signed by that particular customer computer. This payment message is stored in a closing record for use in resolving issues regarding whether or not the bill was changed after payment was authorized, and whether or not an alleged payment on the selected bill was authorized.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.