Patent ID: 8566149

Claim:
A method of sharing revenue in an Internet printing system comprising a server computer of a search engine provider company, a host computer capable of browsing the Internet, and a server computer of an advertisement sponsor, the method comprising: in the host computer, performing the steps of: registering a user of the host computer with the search engine provider server computer as a participant in an Internet advertisement revenue sharing system managed by the search engine provider company, thereby establishing an account for the registered user; conducting, on behalf of the registered user, an Internet search utilizing a web page of the search engine provider server computer, the search resulting in a search result page being displayed on a browser of the host computer; receiving a selection to print the displayed search result page with advertisement data included therein on a printer connected to the host computer; receiving advertisement data of the advertisement sponsor after receiving the selection to print the displayed search result page with advertisement data included therein; generating print data to print out the search result page together with the received advertisement data of the advertisement sponsor in addition to the search result; submitting the generated print data and received advertisement data to the printer for printing in accordance with the selection by the user of the host computer to print the displayed search result page; receiving a confirmation message from the printer confirming that the printout of the received advertisement data in addition to the search result page was successful; and notifying the search engine provider server computer that the printout of the received advertisement data in addition to the search result page was successful, and, in the search engine provider server computer, performing the steps of: receiving the notification from the host computer that the printout of the advertisement data in addition to the search result page was successful; submitting a charge to an account of the advertisement sponsor for the printing of the advertisement data included in the printout; and submitting a credit to the account of the registered user for the selection to print the advertisement data in addition to the search result page, the credit corresponding to a portion of the amount charged to the advertisement sponsor for the printing of the advertisement data, wherein the user that registered with the search engine provider is the same user that is associated with the search, the printing of the search result page, and the account of the registered user that receives the credit.