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US 2009/0157494 A1Published application
Scalable audit-based protocol for pay-per-action ads
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsDarko Kirovski, Cherian Varkey Mathew, Ashwin Swaminathan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods that account for payment of sales commission received by the merchant. An audit component simulates user behavior in purchasing items from the merchant in an advertising system, which encompasses interaction among a merchant (who advertise on websites/blogs); a trusted party (who monitors activities of the merchant), an advertisement publisher, and an advertisement consumer (e.g., buyer of the merchandise offered by the merchant).
Claims20
A computer implemented system comprising:
- an advertising system that pays sales commission from a merchant to an advertisement publisher;
- and
- an audit component that audits the merchant for sales generated from the advertisement publisher via cookies attachable to a device of a buyer.
A computer implemented method comprising:
- directing a user to a merchant site via an advertising publisher;
- monitoring activities of the merchant to verify adherence to sales obligations;
- and
- paying the advertising publisher.
1 more element
A computer implemented system comprising:
- means for advertising merchandise of a merchant to a user;
- and
- means for auditing the merchant.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.