Patent EA-001933-B1 (EA)
Title: Apparatus for account settlements between owners of software, electronic database, remote services rented by users and subjects intrested in information processing and/or receiving
Inventor: MATVEEV LEV LAZAREVICH
IPC: G06Q40/00
Filed: 2001-03-16
Abstract: 1. An apparatus for account settlements between owners of software (S), electronic data (ED), remote services rented by users and subjects interested in information processing and receiving, includes means allowing converting the cost of rented S and/or ED and/or RS into conventional units (CU) as well as the cost of information to be processed and/or provided by a user, converting the cost of user actions with rented S and/or ED and/or RS into CU, recording, accumulating, transferring, controlling and keeping record of information received, processed and/or provided by a user as well as adjusting parameters of displaying the received information, increasing the amount of CU for processed and/or provided information by a user and authorizing the use of rented S and/or ED and/or RS if a user has a sufficient amount of CU, decreasing the amount of CU for the use of rented S and/or ED and/or RS and preventing the use of S and/or ED and/or RS if a user has not a sufficient amount of CU. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein an information accumulation program unit (IAU) is used to record and/or accumulate information to be received, processed and/or transferred to a remote device as well as to adjust parameters for displaying received information. 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a data storage program unit (DSU) is used to store information about the amount of CU that a user has. 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein an information management program module (MCPI) is used to increase the amount of CU in DSU for information processed and/or provided by a user, to retrieve from IAU information which was received from a remote device and is intended to be processed by a user and/or to transfer information provided by a user to IAU. 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a program module for controlling and tracking the use of rented objects (MCRO) is used to authorize the use of S and/or ED and/or RS, decrease the amount of a user's CU stored in DSU for the use of S and/or ED and/or RS and launch MCPI if said amount of CU runs out. 6. A method for account settlements between owners of software (S), electronic data (ED), remote services (RS) rented by users and subjects interested in information processing and receiving includes: transferring information about S and/or ED and/or RS to said remote device by their owners, transferring data on information to be processed by a user who rents S and/or ED and/or RS to said remote device from subject (SR) interested in processing said information by a user and/or in processing a request for information to be provided by a user to SR, said method using the apparatus of claim 1 performs the following operations: converting the cost of rented S and/or ED and/or RS as well as the cost of information to be processed and/or provided by a user into conventional units (CU), converting the cost of a user's actions with rented S and/or ED and/or RS into CU, recording, accumulating, transferring, controlling and keeping record of information received, processed and/or provided by a user as well as adjusting parameters of displaying received information, increasing the amount of CU for processing and/or providing information by a user and authorizing the use of rented S and/or ED and/or RS if a user has a sufficient amount of CU, decreasing the amount of CU for using rented S and/or ED and/or RS and preventing the use of S and/or ED and/or RS if a user has not a sufficient amount of CU. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein a user selects any of available types of information provided by a remote device for processing. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein parameters for displaying information to be processed are adjusted according to one of rules: displaying information immediately during a work session with rented S and/or ED and/or RS, displaying information immediately after its receipt or at any time by activating it manually, displaying information at a specified time, specifying a time interval for displaying information to be processed and the frequency of warning about the need to display said information, moreover, information display rules set by SR have a higher priority over the information display rules set by a user. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein information which has not been displayed during a specified time interval, is removed. 10. The method of claim 6, wherein information is processed in online or offline modes. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein if the connection to the remote device is not available, a request for information to be processed by a user is added to the queue for a further information retrieval and/or to the queue for transferring to a remote device.