# US 8,787,554 B1 · System and method for a digital network for switching web service messages

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 8,787,554 B1
- Document ID: US8787554B1
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B1
- Application number: 13/929,553
- Filed: 2013-06-27
- Published: 2014-07-17
- Granted: 2014-07-22
- Earliest claimed: 2013-01-11
- Assignees: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
- Applicants: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
- Inventors: Clinton R. Allen; Paul M. Crofts; Jeff W. Fromm
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US8787554B1

## CPC

- H04L 41/5051: Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time
- G06Q 10/0639: Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
- G06Q 20/10: specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
- G06Q 30/00: Commerce
- G06Q 30/0226: Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
- H04L 12/1403: {Architecture for metering, charging or billing}
- H04L 63/10: {for controlling access to devices or network resources}
- H04L 67/10: in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46)
- H04L 67/12: specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
- H04L 67/146: Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
- H04L 67/56: Provisioning of proxy services (store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54)
- H04M 3/5183: {Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements}
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H04M: TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION (circuits for controlling other apparatus via a telephone cable and not involving telephone switching apparatus G08)

## Abstract

The present system and method comprises an improved marketplace for providing and consuming services. Using the present system, generally via one or more APIs, comprises a method for integrating value added services within a network of participants, for instance, a payment network. The network can use service switching capabilities to route service calls to and from the service consumers and providers using routing elements defined in a message specification. Network participants can be both consumers and providers of services. The network can route service messages to the appropriate provider depending on details in the message.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A computer-based method comprising:
receiving, by a digital network computer, a request to route a service call message from a requestor to a service provider within an electronic marketplace of service providers and service consumers;
verifying, by the digital network computer, privileges of the requestor to request services from the service provider;
tagging, by the digital network computer, the service call message with data indicating results of the verifying;
storing, by the digital network computer, the tags of the service call message to a database;
scrubbing, by the digital network computer, the tags of the service call message; and
routing, by the digital network computer, the service call message to the service provider in response to positive verification that the requestor may request services from the service provider and based on attributes of the service call message.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising securing the identity of the requestor from the marketplace of service providers and service consumers.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving, by the digital network computer, a response to the routed service call message;
verifying, by the digital network computer, privileges of the service provider to deliver services to the requestor;
tagging, by the digital network computer, the response to the service call message with data indicating the results of the verifying;
storing, by the digital network computer, the tags of the response to the service call message to a database;
scrubbing, by the digital network computer, the tags of the response to the service call message; and
routing, by the digital network computer, the response to service call message to the requestor in response to positive verification that the service provider may provide services to the requestor and based on attributes of the response to the service call message.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising tagging, by the digital network computer, at least one of information identifying the requestor of the service call message, information identifying an intended recipient of the service call message, information identifying an actual recipient of the service call message, information identifying a time of an origination of the request, and information identifying a time of the delivering the request to the actual recipient.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein a fee is assessed to the requestor for routing the service call message by the digital network computer.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the verifying further comprises comparing the attributes of the request to a rule of an agreement.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, further comprising tagging, by the digital network computer, the identification of at least one of the rule, the agreement, and a version of the agreement.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the marketplace of service providers and service consumers are disparate third party service providers and service consumers.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the request is received through a first API.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the request is routed to the service provider through a second API.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, wherein the framework of the first API conforms to a standard.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising tagging, by the digital network computer, at least one of the identification of the hardware elements and software processors used to deliver the service call message from the requestor to the service provider.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12, assessing a fee for routing the service call message to the requestor based on a pro-rated cost of hardware elements used to switch each message.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the request is received through a first API and the request is routed to the service provider through the first API.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the on-boarding of service providers to the electronic marketplace includes a certification process.

### Claim 16 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein each service call message may be routed based on on-call privileges of the electronic marketplace of service providers and service consumers.

### Claim 17 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the requestor earns loyalty points for requesting to route the service call message from the requestor to the service provider within the electronic marketplace of service providers and service consumers.

### Claim 18 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein a second service provider coupled to the electronic marketplace of service providers and service consumers who was not the recipient of the routed message may use the information of the service call message to transmit a second service call message to the requestor.

### Claim 19

An electronic marketplace system comprising:
an electronic marketplace of service providers and service consumers;
a service provider coupled the electronic marketplace of service providers and service consumers;
a requestor coupled the electronic marketplace of service providers and service consumers; and
a digital network processor, wherein the requestor transmits a request to route a service call message from the requestor to the service provider within the electronic marketplace of service providers and service consumers via the digital network processor, wherein the digital network processor verifies the privileges of the requestor to request services from the service provider, wherein the digital network processor tags the service call message with data indicating results of the verifying, wherein the tags are stored to both the service call message and to a database, wherein the tags of the service call message are scrubbed by the network processor, and wherein the digital network processor routes the service call message to the service provider in response to a positive verification that the requestor may request services from the service provider and based on attributes of the service call message.

### Claim 20

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by an electronic marketplace computer, causes the computer perform operations comprising:
receiving, by a digital network computer, a request to route a service call message from a requestor to a service provider within an electronic marketplace of service providers and service consumers;
verifying, by the digital network computer, privileges of the requestor to request services from the service provider;
tagging, by the digital network computer, the service call message with data indicating results of the verifying;
storing, by the digital network computer, the tags of the service call message to a database;
scrubbing, by the digital network computer, the tags of the service call message; and
routing, by the digital network computer, the service call message to the service provider in response to positive verification that the requestor may request services from the service provider and based on attributes of the service call message.