Method and system for facilitating online payments based on an established payment agreement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10796313-B2
Application number	US-201815949429-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 10, 2018
Priority date	Apr 13, 2004
Publication date	Oct 6, 2020
Grant date	Oct 6, 2020

Abstract

A method and system for facilitating online payments are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a payment agreement is established at a payment service provider that defines terms of a payment relationship between a merchant and a user. The establishing of the payment agreement includes linking the payment agreement with a payment account of the merchant or user stored at the payment service provider. After establishing the payment agreement, a payment request associated with a transaction is received, whereby the payment request includes a unique identifier to identify the payment agreement stored at the payment service provider. Based on a verification that the payment request complies with terms of the payment agreement, the payment request is processed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a payment service provider server of a payment service provider that is distinct from a merchant server of a merchant, a payment request associated with a transaction between a user and the merchant, the payment request being received from the merchant server in response to the user making a particular user selection on a user interface of a merchant site provided by the merchant server; and
automatically and without requiring user intervention, processing, by the payment service provider server, the payment request to cause transfer of funds to a merchant account, the receiving of the payment request and the processing of the payment request both being in response to the particular user selection and being performed on the user interface of the merchant site without directing the user to a service provider site of the payment service provider such that the payment request is received and processed by the payment service provider server based on user interaction with the merchant site instead of being based on user interaction with the service provider site.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further includes:
verifying, by the payment service provider server, that the payment request complies with terms of a payment agreement established between the merchant and the user; and
wherein the processing of the payment request is in response to verifying that the payment request complies with the terms of the payment agreement.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising identifying the payment agreement for the verifying using a unique identifier included in the payment request.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the payment agreement defines terms including an authority granted by the user to the payment service provider to make payments to the merchant on behalf of the user.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the verifying that the payment request complies with the terms of the payment agreement includes performing one or more verification operations selected from a group of verification operations consisting of:
verifying that processing the payment request does not exceed an authority granted by the user;
verifying that processing the payment request would not exceed a maximum payment amount set by the user;
verifying that processing the payment request would not exceed a maximum number of payment requests processed over a predetermined time period;
verifying that the payment request is in connection with a product or service for which the payment service provider is authorized to make a payment; and
verifying that the payment request is in connection with a product or service for which the payment service provider is authorized to make a payment.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving, at the payment service provider server a relationship request to establish, at the payment service provider server, the payment agreement between the merchant and the user prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user; and
establishing the payment agreement between the merchant and the user, the establishing of the payment agreement comprising linking the payment agreement with one or more accounts selected from a group of accounts consisting of: the merchant account of the merchant; and a user account of the user.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the relationship request is received in response to a selection by the user of a link to establish the payment agreement on an interface presented on a device of the user.

8. A system comprising:
one or more machine readable media having instructions stored thereon; and
one or more hardware processors configured to, in response to execution of the instructions, cause the system to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at a payment service provider server of a payment service provider that is distinct from a merchant server of a merchant a payment request associated with a transaction between a user and the merchant, the payment request being received from the merchant server in response to the user making a particular user selection on a user interface of a merchant site provided by the merchant server; and
automatically and without requiring user intervention, attempting to process, by the payment service provider server, the payment request to cause transfer of funds to a merchant account of the merchant, the receiving of the payment request and the attempting to process the payment request both being in response to the particular user selection and being performed on the user interface of the merchant site without directing the user to a service provider site of the payment service provider such that the payment request is received and attempted for processing by the payment service provider server based on user interaction with the merchant site instead of being based on user interaction with the service provider site.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the operations further include:
verifying, by the payment service provider server, that the payment request complies with terms of a payment agreement established between the merchant and the user; and
wherein the attempting to process the payment request is in response to verifying that the payment request complies with the terms of the payment agreement.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise identifying the payment agreement for the verifying using a unique identifier included in the payment request.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the payment agreement defines terms including an authority granted by the user to the payment service provider to make payments to the merchant on behalf of the user.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the verifying that the payment request complies with the terms of the payment agreement includes performing one or more verification operations selected from a group of verification operations consisting of:
verifying that processing the payment request does not exceed an authority granted by the user;
verifying that processing the payment request would not exceed a maximum payment amount set by the user;
verifying that processing the payment request would not exceed a maximum number of payment requests processed over a predetermined time period;
verifying that the payment request is in connection with a product or service for which the payment service provider is authorized to make a payment; and
verifying that the payment request is in connection with a product or service for which the payment service provider is authorized to make a payment.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving, at the payment service provider server a relationship request to establish, at the payment service provider server, the payment agreement between the merchant and the user prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user; and
establishing the payment agreement between the merchant and the user, the establishing of the payment agreement comprising linking the payment agreement with one or more accounts maintained at the payment service provider selected from a group of accounts consisting of:
the merchant account of the merchant; and
a user account of the user.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise, in response to the attempt being unsuccessful, sending a notification to the merchant server indicating that the attempt was unsuccessful.

15. One or more non-transitory machine-readable media having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by one or more hardware proce

Assignees

• Paypal Inc

Inventors

• Olliphant Hugo
• Chastagnol Franck
• Su Yi-Ling
• Wu William
• Brown Chris
• Dang Thach
• Veino Thomas
• Gunby Carol
• Chu Peter Zhe
• Chen Steven

Classifications

• G06Q20/02 Primary

  involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP] · CPC title

• G06Q40/00

  Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes · CPC title

• G06Q20/405 Primary

  Establishing or using transaction specific rules · CPC title

• G06Q20/102

  Bill distribution or payments · CPC title

• G06Q20/10

  specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems · CPC title