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Providing configurable usage models for available services |
| 7801771 |
Providing configurable usage models for available services
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| Patent Drawings: |
(11 images) |
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| Inventor: |
Sirota, et al. |
| Date Issued: |
September 21, 2010 |
| Application: |
11/454,622 |
| Filed: |
June 15, 2006 |
| Inventors: |
Sirota; Peter (Seattle, WA)
Ghare; Gaurav D. (Seattle, WA)
Johnson; Don (Seattle, WA)
Jain; Tushar (Bellevue, WA)
Frederick; Robert (Seattle, WA)
Agrawal; Ashish (Bangalore, IN)
Barr; Jeffrey (Sammamish, WA)
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| Assignee: |
Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Reno, NV) |
| Primary Examiner: |
Shah; Amee A |
| Assistant Examiner: |
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| Attorney Or Agent: |
Seed IP Law Group PLLC |
| U.S. Class: |
705/26; 705/66 |
| Field Of Search: |
705/26; 705/27; 705/66 |
| International Class: |
G06Q 30/00 |
| U.S Patent Documents: |
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| Foreign Patent Documents: |
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| Other References: |
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|
| Abstract: |
Techniques are described for facilitating interactions between computing systems, such as in accordance with usage models that are configured for available services by the providers of the services. In some situations, the services are Web services, and an electronic Web service ("WS") marketplace is provided via which third-party WS providers make their WSes available to third-party WS consumers who purchase access to those WSes via the electronic marketplace based on configured usage models selected by the consumers. Some or all of the one or more usage models configured for an available WS may each have associated use prices and/or non-price use conditions, and if so access to those WSes using those usage models may be provided only if a consumer requesting access provides appropriate payment and otherwise satisfies the specified use conditions for a selected usage model. |
| Claim: |
What is claimed is:
1. A computer-implemented method for configuring access to Web services for Web service consumers, the method comprising: receiving from multiple providers of Web servicesindications of multiple Web services to be made available to consumers of Web services; for each of the indicated Web services, automatically configuring one or more associated distinct usage models for use in controlling access to the indicated Webservice, the automatic configuring of the one or more associated distinct usage models being performed by one or more programmed computing systems and including, providing information to a provider of the indicated Web service to indicate multiplepredefined types of use prices available for use with the indicated Web service and to indicate one or more types of use restrictions available for use with the indicated Web service; and for each of the associated usage models of the indicated Webservice, receiving one or more indications from the provider of the indicated Web service that specify a use price and one or more use restrictions for the usage model, such that the specified use price is of one of the predefined use price types and isto be charged for use of the indicated Web service by Web service consumers who select the usage model and such that each of the specified one or more use restrictions is of one of the use restriction types and is to restrict use of the indicated Webservice by Web service consumers who select the usage model; and after the automatic configuring of the one or more usage models for one of the indicated Web Services, receiving an indication from a Web service consumer of one of the configured usagemodels for the one indicated Web service that the web service consumer has selected for use, and responding to the received indication from the Web service consumer by, if use of the one indicated Web service by the Web service consumer does not violatethe use restrictions of the selected one usage model and if payment is available for the use price of the selected one usage model, automatically facilitating access of the Web service consumer to the one indicated Web service.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, after the configuring of the one or more associated distinct usage models for each of the indicated Web services, providing information about the indicated Web services and the associated usagemodels for use by consumers of Web services in accessing the indicated Web services in accordance with the associated usage models.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the facilitating of the access of the consumer to the one indicated Web service includes obtaining the payment from the consumer for the use price of the selected usage model.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the facilitating of the access of the consumer to the one registered Web service includes invoking the one indicated Web service from the provider of the one indicated Web service on behalf of the consumer.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the selected usage model of the one indicated Web service specifies a multi-use subscription for the one indicated Web service, and wherein the facilitating of the access of the consumer to the one indicated Webservice includes providing the subscription to the consumer.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the facilitating of the access of the consumer to the one indicated Web service includes providing to the consumer access to the one indicated Web service in a manner in accordance with one or more of the userestrictions of the selected usage model.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more programmed computing systems are part of an electronic marketplace for selling and purchasing access to Web services, and wherein the method further comprises registering the indicated Webservices with the electronic marketplace so as to make access to each of the registered Web services available to Web service consumers in accordance with the usage models associated with the Web service.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the facilitating of the access of the consumer to the one indicated Web service includes providing to the consumer results from one or more previous invocations of the one indicated Web service.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the one or more previous invocations of the one indicated Web service were performed on behalf of one or more other consumers, and wherein the providing to the consumer of the results is performed withoutinvoking the one indicated Web service on behalf of the consumer.
10. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing payment to a Web service provider for use of one or more indicated Web services of the Web service provider based at least in part on payments received from consumers for use of those Webservices.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuring of each of at least some of the usage models further includes specifying additional information for the usage model based at least in part on information received from the provider of theindicated Web service with which the usage model is associated, and wherein providing of access to an indicated Web service with which one of the at least some usage models is associated is performed in accordance with the specified additionalinformation for the one usage model.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein the use price specified for each of one or more of the at least some usage models is to be charged multiple times.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein the specified additional information for each of those usage models includes one or more indications of timing for the multiple charges.
14. The method of claim 11 wherein one or more of the at least some usage models each has multiple use prices to each be charged for use of the Web service to which the usage model is associated, and wherein the specified additional informationfor each of those usage models includes one or more indications of how the multiple use prices are to be charged.
15. The method of claim 11 wherein one or more of the at least some usage models each has multiple use prices to alternatively be charged for use of the Web service to which the usage model is associated, and wherein the specified additionalinformation for each of those usage models includes one or more indications of how to determine which of the multiple use prices is to be charged.
16. The method of claim 11 wherein the specified additional information for each of the at least some usage models includes one or more indications of one or more payment methods that may be used to pay the use price for the usage model.
17. The method of claim 11 wherein the specified additional information for each of the at least some usage models includes one or more indications of a multi-use subscription to be provided to a consumer for the usage model.
18. The method of claim 11 wherein the specified additional information for each of the at least some usage models includes one or more indications to aggregate multiple payments that are to be charged to one or more consumers for use of theusage model before obtaining a single payment to reflect an amount of the aggregated payments.
19. The method of claim 11 wherein the specified additional information for each of the at least some usage models includes one or more indications of one or more times at which the usage model is not available to consumers.
20. The method of claim 11 wherein the specified additional information for each of the at least some usage models includes one or more indications of information to be provided to consumers who select that usage model.
21. The method of claim 11 wherein the specified additional information for each of the at least some usage models includes one or more indications of information to be obtained from consumers who select that usage model.
22. The method of claim 11 wherein the specified additional information for each of the at least some usage models includes one or more indications of a temporary promotion available to consumers who select that usage model.
23. The method of claim 11 wherein the specified additional information for each of the at least some usage models includes one or more indications of a bundle of at least one other usage model of at least one other indicated Web service suchthat consumers who select the bundle will obtain access to the indicated Web services of the bundle in accordance with the usage models of the bundle.
24. The method of claim 11 wherein the specified additional information for each of the at least some usage models includes one or more indications to generate multiple coupons for the usage model such that a consumer to whom a coupon isprovided may obtain access to the indicated Web service with which the usage model is associated at an indicated price less than the use price for the usage model.
25. The method of claim 11 wherein the specified additional information for each of the at least some usage models includes one or more indications of a specified quality of service at which the indicated Web service with which the usage modelis associated will be provided to consumers.
26. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each of at least some of the indicated Web services, the configuring of the one or more associated usage models for use in controlling access to the indicated Web service includes configuring multipleassociated usage models for the indicated Web service.
27. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiple predefined types of use prices available for use with an indicated Web service include multiple of a price for per-use access to the indicated Web service, a price for a subscription that enablesmultiple accesses to the indicated Web service for an indicated period of time, and a price for a subscription that provides a pre-paid indicated number of multiple accesses to the indicated Web service.
28. The method of claim 27 wherein the multiple predefined types of use prices for use with the indicated Web service further include at least one of a price that is represented in non-monetary points, tiered pricing to reflect different useprices for different volumes of use by a consumer, a promotional price available for a temporary time, one or more prices to reflect a volume of use of the indicated Web service by others, one or more prices to reflect use at one or more indicatedqualities of service, a price to reflect an indicated type of use of the indicated Web service, a price to reflect use of the indicated Web service by an indicated type of consumer, and a price that reflects use by a consumer of a discount coupon.
29. The method of claim 27 wherein the multiple predefined types of use prices for use with the indicated Web service further include all of a price that is represented in non-monetary points, tiered pricing to reflect different use prices fordifferent volumes of use by a consumer, a promotional price available for a temporary time, one or more prices to reflect a volume of use of the indicated Web service by others, one or more prices to reflect use at one or more indicated qualities ofservice, a price to reflect an indicated type of use of the indicated Web service, a price to reflect use of the indicated Web service by an indicated type of consumer, and a price that reflects use by a consumer of a discount coupon.
30. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiple types of use restrictions available for use with an indicated Web service include at least one of one or more geographical restraints on locations of consumers, one or more restraints on a volumeof use of the indicated Web service, one or more restraints on one or more times of use of the indicated Web service, one or more restraints on types of devices that consumers may use when accessing the indicated Web service, one or more restraints on anumber of devices that a consumer may use when accessing the indicated Web service, one or more restraints on types of consumers who may use the indicated Web service, one or more restraints on network locations of consumers, one or more restraints ontypes of currencies that consumers may use to pay charges for accessing the indicated Web service, and one or more restraints on a type of use of the indicated Web service.
31. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiple types of use restrictions available for use with an indicated Web service are predefined and include all of one or more geographical restraints on locations of consumers, one or more restraints ona volume of use of the indicated Web service, one or more restraints on one or more times of use of the indicated Web service, one or more restraints on types of devices that consumers may use when accessing the indicated Web service, one or morerestraints on a number of devices that a consumer may use when accessing the indicated Web service, one or more restraints on types of consumers who may use the indicated Web service, one or more restraints on network locations of consumers, one or morerestraints on types of currencies that consumers may use to pay charges for accessing the indicated Web service, and one or more restraints on a type of use of the indicated Web service.
32. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the usage models are each available only to selected consumers.
33. The method of claim 32 wherein the selected consumers for each of the at least some usage models are identified based at least in part on having a pre-existing relationship with the provider of the indicated Web service with which the usagemodel is associated.
34. The method of claim 32 wherein the selected consumers for each of the at least some usage models are identified based at least in part on satisfying one or more indicated criteria.
35. The method of claim 32 wherein the selected consumers for each of the at least some usage models are identified based at least in part on being part of a predetermined subset of the consumers so that the usage model may be test marketed tothe selected consumers.
36. The method of claim 32 wherein an existence of each of the at least some usage models is not indicated to consumers that are not the selected consumers for that usage model.
37. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing information to each of at least some of the providers about use of one or more Web services made available to consumers by the provider.
38. The method of claim 37 wherein the providing of the information to each of the at least some providers about use of the one or more Web services made available to consumers by the provider includes providing information related to at leastsome usage models for the one or more Web services that are no longer available to consumers.
39. The method of claim 1 further comprising, after a consumer has obtained access to one of the indicated Web services in accordance with one of the usage models associated with the one indicated Web service, monitoring use of the indicatedWeb service by the consumer to ensure that the use by the consumer continues to occur in accordance with the one usage model.
40. The method of claim 39 wherein the one usage model allows the consumer to access the indicated Web service multiple times, and wherein the monitoring of the use of an indicated Web service by a consumer includes verifying that the multipletimes of accessing the indicated Web service are not exceeded.
41. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the consumers each obtains access to an indicated Web service on behalf of an application program of the consumer such that invocations of the indicated Web service are performed duringoperation of the application program.
42. The method of claim 41 wherein one of the at least one consumers is an application developer who distributes to other users the application program on whose behalf the access to the indicated Web service was obtained, and wherein paymentsfor use of the indicated Web service by the other users when operating the application program are obtained from the other users.
43. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the consumers are application programs available for use by one or more end-users.
44. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the consumers are services available for use by one or more end-users.
45. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the multiple Web services are remotely invocable over a network from a computing system of a provider of the Web service.
46. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having contents including instructions that when executed configure a computing system to perform a method comprising: receiving from multiple providers of Web services indications ofmultiple Web services to be made available to consumers of Web services; for each of at least some of the indicated Web services, automatically configuring one or more associated distinct usage models for use in controlling access to the indicated Webservice, the configuring of the one or more associated usage models being performed by the configured computing system and including, providing information to a provider of the indicated Web service to indicate multiple predefined types of use pricesavailable for use with the indicated Web service and to indicate one or more types of use restrictions available for use with the indicated Web service; and for each of the one or more associated usage models of the indicated Web service, receiving oneor more indications from the provider of the indicated Web service that specify a use price and one or more use restrictions for the usage model, the specified use price being of one of the predefined use price types and to be charged for use of theindicated Web service by Web service consumers who select the usage model, and each of the specified one or more use restrictions being of one of the use restriction types and being to restrict use of the indicated Web service by Web service consumerswho select the usage model; and after the automatic configuring of the one or more usage models for one of the at least some indicated Web services, receiving an indication from Web service consumer of one of the configured usage models for the oneindicated Web service that the Web service consumer has selected for use, and responding to the received indication from the Web service consumer by, if use of the one indicated Web service by the Web service consumer does not violate the userestrictions of the selected one usage model and if payment is available for the use price of the selected one usage model, automatically facilitating access of the Web service consumer to the one indicated Web service.
47. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 46 wherein the method further comprises, after the configuring of the one or more associated distinct usage models for each of the at least some indicated Web services, providing informationabout those indicated Web services and those associated usage models for use by consumers of Web services in accessing those indicated Web services in accordance with those associated usage models.
48. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 46 wherein the facilitating of the access of the consumer to the one indicated Web service includes obtaining the payment from the consumer for the use price of the selected one configured usagemodel and includes invoking the one indicated Web service from the provider of the one indicated Web service on behalf of the consumer.
49. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 46 wherein the selected one configured usage model of the one indicated Web service specifies a multi-use subscription for the one indicated Web service, and wherein the facilitating of theaccess of the consumer to the one indicated Web service includes providing the subscription to the consumer.
50. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 46 wherein the configured computing system is part of an electronic marketplace for selling and purchasing access to Web services, and wherein the method further comprises registering the atleast some indicated Web services with the electronic marketplace to enable Web service consumers to access the registered Web services via the electronic marketplace in accordance with the configured usage models associated with the registered Webservices.
51. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 46 wherein the configuring of each of at least some of the usage models for the at least some indicated Web services further includes automatically specifying additional information for theusage model based at least in part on information received from the provider of the indicated Web service with which the configured usage model is associated, and wherein the method further comprises, after receiving an indication of one of the at leastsome configured usage models that is associated with a first indicated Web service, providing access to a first consumer for the first indicated Web service in accordance with the specified additional information for the one configured usage model.
52. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 51 wherein the providing of the access of the first consumer to the first indicated Web service in accordance with the specified additional information for the one configured usage modelincludes at least one of using one or more indications of timing in the specified additional information for multiple charges to be made to the first consumer, of using one or more indications in the specified additional information of how multiple useprices specified for the one configured usage mod
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