Payment information security for multi-merchant purchasing environment for downloadable products

US7548889B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Microsoft Corporation · US

Inventors

• Vikram Bhambri · Sammamish, US
• Deirdre L. Walsh · Bellevue, US
• Paul C. Sausville · Issaquah, US
• Raj Biyani · Bellevue, US
• Thomas L. Button · Woodinville, US
• Sean Nolan · Issaquah, US
• Susan Warren · Carnation, US
• Matthew D. Hempey · Novato, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 24, 2005
• Grant date: Jun 16, 2009
• Expiry date: Jan 26, 2027

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G07F7/1008
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A multi-merchant purchasing system is configured to identify downloadable products selected by a user for purchase. The identified downloadable products are offered by multiple merchants. The multi-merchant purchasing system enables the user to purchase all of the downloadable products in a single transaction. Specifically, the multi-merchant purchasing system determines payment information associated with the user and, with minimum user-interaction, sends the payment information to applications associated with the merchants for processing. The multi-merchant purchasing system may also be configured to receive purchase information from the merchant applications and maintains the purchase information for the user in a locker. The multi-merchant purchasing system may further be configured to automatically download and install the purchased product onto the user's computing device through a software assistant. To ensure privacy and security, the multi-merchant purchasing system may include a credit card quarantine module to secure credit card data by encoding and multiple levels of encryptions.