General purpose metering mechanism for distribution of electronic information

Abstract

A computer network system that contains a metering mechanism which can meter the flow of electronic information to a client computer within a network. The information can be generated by a publisher and electronically distributed to a plurality of metering servers which each contain the metering mechanism. The metering servers each reside in a local area network that contains a number of client computers. The client computers each contain a graphical user interface that allows an end user to request consumption of the information. The metering mechanisms control the transfer of information into the client computers. Each unit of information has an associated cost type and cost value that are used to calculate a price for the information. When the end user request consumption of information, the metering mechanism determines whether the end user can consume the information. If the end user can access the information, the meter will transfer the information to the end user and charge the price of the information to an electronic account of the end user stored in a database of the metering server. The metering mechanism can periodically transfer the balance of the account, and the charges associated with the account to a billing database that resides in a regional server which automatically generates a bill for the end user.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.