Patent ID: 9317841
Filing Date: 2016-04-19
CPC Classification: G06Q

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: receiving, at a payment service provider server via a programmatic interface from a merchant server specially configured to communicate using API calls with the specially configured payment service provider server, an API call that includes a relationship request to establish, at the payment service provider server, a payment agreement between a merchant and a user prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user, the API call triggered in response to a selection by the user of a link to establish the payment agreement on an interface presented to a device of the user; verifying, by the payment service provider server, that the relationship request includes properly formatted data items that are used in establishing the payment agreement between the merchant and the user; based on the verifying and using at least one processor of the payment service provider server, establishing the payment agreement between the merchant and the user at a payment service provider that defines terms of a payment relationship between the merchant and the user prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user, the payment agreement being established in response to receiving, from the user, the relationship request to establish the payment agreement with the merchant, the establishing of the payment agreement including linking the payment agreement with a payment account of the merchant or user maintained at the payment service provider, the payment service provider being a separate entity from the merchant; after establishing the payment agreement, receiving, at the payment service provider server, a payment request associated with a transaction from the merchant, the payment request including a unique identifier to identify the payment agreement established between the merchant and the user and stored in data storage at the payment service provider server prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user; verifying, by the payment service provider server, that the payment request complies with the terms of the payment relationship between the merchant and the user established prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user, the verifying including accessing the terms of the payment relationship stored in the data storage at the payment service provider server; and based on the verifying that the payment request complies with the terms of the payment relationship between the merchant and the user established prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user, automatically and without user intervention, processing the payment request by the payment service provider server, the receiving of the payment request, verifying that the payment request complies with the terms, and automatically processing being triggered in response to a single action performed at the device of the user.