Flexible license payment method for electronic commerce systems

• Main Authors: TANJO WAKIMOTO, TORU KUWAHARA, KAZUYA TAMURA, COLIN B. MACLEAN, MASAYUKI CHATANI, KEN KUTARAGI, AKIRA SAITO, HAJIME HIRANO, PHILIP D. PALMER, ANNE AI-YU CHEN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 31.07.2001
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: CALCULATING; CHECKING-DEVICES; COMPUTING; CONVEYING; COUNTING; DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS OR METHODS, SPECIALLY ADAPTED FORADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORYOR FORECASTING PURPOSES; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL; PACKING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS; REGISTERING THE RECEIPT OF CASH, VALUABLES, OR TOKENS; SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS; STORING; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE,COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORY OR FORECASTINGPURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING ORTIPPING; TRANSPORTING

This invention provides a stocking-burden-reducing sales-management system for articles such as computer readable media upon which an executable computer program is written. In a sales management server 1, an order-delivery processor 120 performs order and delivery processing with a manufacturer terminal 3. An order accepting unit 130 receives order information from a customer terminal 2, stores the order information in a sales database 170, and performs inventory management processes. A charging processor 140 performs the task of charging customers. The charging processor also determines a royalty to be paid to an added value creator of the article, and then transmits the information to an added value creator terminal 4. A delivery instruction unit 150 provides an instruction of delivery of the ordered articles to a delivery terminal 8.