Electronic commerce system

#Text Appendices A-C are included with this patent application.

#This invention relates to electronic commerce systems implemented using public packet switched communications networks.

#U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,424, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, filed Dec. 16, 1993 by David K. Gifford and issued on Mar. 3, 1998, discloses an electronic commerce system that allows buyer computers to purchase goods or information from merchant computers over a public packet switched communications networks. The merchant computers cause electronic documents to be sent to buyer computers containing forms that buyers can fill out and return to the merchant computers to request purchases. A payment computer obtains authorization of payment orders for purchases in real time from an external financial authorization network.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic commerce system according to the invention.

#FIG. 2 is a flow-chart diagram of the order acceptance controller and order capture controller of the electronic commerce system of FIG. 1.

#FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a fraud avoidance controller system for use in the electronic commerce system of FIG. 1.

#With reference to FIG. 1, the invention provides an electronic commerce system 10 that enables automated processing of on-line orders using advanced order acceptability criteria. The electronic commerce system negotiates with client computers 12, which may be operated, for example, by buyers who wish to purchase goods or services, or by agents who make purchase for or make sales to buyers. Once the negotiation phase is complete, or independently thereof, the electronic commerce system can enter a transaction phase in which an order by client computer 12 for goods or services to be delivered by a seller is “captured” by server 14.

#According to the negotiated order acceptance protocol of electronic commerce system 10, client computer 12 first sends an order acceptance request message 16 to server 14. Order acceptance request 16 may contain information identifying the buyer (which may or may not be the client), the seller, the goods, products, or services that the buyer wishes to purchase, optional information describing terms or conditions of the purchasing transaction that the client considers desirable, and unique order-identifying information for use by client computer 12 and server 14 to speed order processing and for use in identifying the order in other related protocols. Such terms or conditions may include intended means of payment, time of payment, payment guarantee conditions, shipping methods, time and place of delivery, insurance coverage, risk-of-loss provisions, cancellation policies, goods acceptance criteria, and other terms. In a particular embodiment, header files useful in implementing the protocol described above are shown in portions of Appendix B.

#Server 14 processes order acceptance request 16 and generates an order acceptance response 18 containing the original order acceptance request amended to indicate the terms or conditions acceptable to server 14 and which may contain unique order-identifying information. These amendments signify that certain terms or conditions specified in, or omitted from, order acceptance request 16 constitute violations of the server's order acceptance criteria. The amendments include a list of specific order acceptance criteria, each of which indicates specifically the section of the original order acceptance request to which it refers and indicates alternative choices that would be acceptable to server 14. An amendment may indicate that server 14 rejects a specific term or condition and may contain a menu of proposed replacement terms, or an amendment may refer to an element of the proposed order that was omitted from order acceptance request 16 and may propose a menu of acceptable terms or conditions for that element.