Mark R Locher

US Patent:

20040088244, May 6, 2004

Filed:

Oct 31, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/284843

Inventors:

William Bartter - Gahanna OH, US
Yigang Cai - Naperville IL, US
Mark Locher - Dublin OH, US
Brian Rae - Bristol, GB
Allan Rush - Glendale AZ, US
Sridhar Sripathi - Columbus OH, US

International Classification:

G06F017/60

US Classification:

705/038000

Abstract:

An intelligent network-based e-commerce system computes costs and bills customers for rated transactions based on service type and/or content. A gateway device such as a gateway server or short message service center (SMSC) receives costing/billing requests (or “rated debit requests”) and forwards the requests to one or more service control points (SCPs) The SCPs maintain subscriber accounts for one or more subscribers and maintain a tariff table having cost/rate information associated with one or more services. Upon receiving the costing/billing request, an SCP consults the tariff table to determine the cost/rate information corresponding to the service type and/or content identified in the rated debit request and computes the cost of the service based on the rate information. In one embodiment, the SCP further determines an eligibility of the subscriber account to be billed for the service (i.e., authorization for the service, sufficiency of account balance and allowance of overcharges) and, in response to a positive determination of eligibility, debits the cost of the service from the subscriber account.

US Patent:

20040088249, May 6, 2004

Filed:

Oct 31, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/284626

Inventors:

William Bartter - Gahanna OH, US
Yigang Cai - Naperville IL, US
Mark Locher - Dublin OH, US
Brian Rae - Bristol, GB
Allan Rush - Glendale AZ, US
Sridhar Sripathi - Columbus OH, US

International Classification:

G06F017/60

US Classification:

705/039000, 379/114280

Abstract:

An intelligent network-based e-commerce system contains one or more service control points (SCPs) for maintaining account information associated with a plurality of prepaid subscribers. The account information is accessible by service providers -or subscribers via a gateway server The electronic commerce system supports transactions including subscriber authentication, balance request operations, debit request operations and credit request operations.

US Patent:

20040088250, May 6, 2004

Filed:

Oct 31, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/284679

Inventors:

William Bartter - Gahanna OH, US
Yigang Cai - Naperville IL, US
Mark Locher - Dublin OH, US
Brian Rae - Bristol, GB
Allan Rush - Glendale AZ, US
Sridhar Sripathi - Columbus OH, US

International Classification:

G06F017/60

US Classification:

705/039000

Abstract:

Methods are disclosed for replenishing subscriber accounts in an intelligent network-based e-commerce system using credit/debit cards (FIG. ) or scratch cards (FIG. ). An end user sends a recharge request to a client application -. The recharge includes information comprising the recharge amount, an identifier of the prepaid account, and indicia of one the credit card, debit card or scratch card for funding the recharge amount. The client application forwards the information to a gateway server which, in turn, sends the information to a service control point (SCP) . In the embodiment using a credit/debit card, the SCP determines validity of the account and authorization to fund the recharge amount using the credit/debit card. In the embodiment using a scratch card, the SCP determines validity of the account and validity of the scratch card. Validity of the scratch card is determined by querying a recharge card management system (RCMS). If the transaction is successful, the SCP credits the recharge amount to the prepaid account and sends an acknowledgment to the gateway server. If the transaction is unsuccessful, the SCP sends an error message or negative acknowledgment to the gateway server. The gateway server forwards the information to the client application and the client application informs the end user of the outcome.

US Patent:

48414336, Jun 20, 1989

Filed:

Nov 26, 1986

Appl. No.:

6/935247

Inventors:

Shafik J. Hakim - Naperville IL
Mark R. Locher - Naperville IL
Kenneth Y. Nieng - Lombard IL
Barbara A. Vagnozzi - Naperville IL

Assignee:

American Telephone and Telegraph Company, AT&T Bell Laboratories - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

G06F 1200

US Classification:

364200

Abstract:

A method and apparatus for accessing data in a data base that provides for a minimum of unused storage while preserving easy expandability. A group of accessing keys are used to identify the attributes data that is being sought in a data base. In accordance with the invention, subkeys are extracted from members of the group of data accessing keys and these subkeys are advantageously rearranged to form derived accessing keys. Subkeys are densely populataed if most values of a subkey are used in most systems. One of the derived accessing keys, derived from densely populated subkeys is used for accessing the tables of data attributes that are therefore advantageously densely populated. Another derived accessing key, derived from sparsely populated subkeys, is used for accessing a sparsely populated head table. Derived keys of intermediate population density are used for accessing tables intermediate between the head tables and the tables of data attributes.