Patent ID: 7177847

Claim:
A method of effectuating a business relationship between a first party and a second party, the relationship being governed by an agreement between the first party and the second party and being evidenced by the second party being in possession of a public key of the first party, the method comprising: creating by the first party a token that authorizes a delegate to request a transaction according to the agreement on behalf of the first party; specifying in the token at least one constraint on a transaction requested by the delegate on behalf of the first party; providing to the delegate the token; and sending by the delegate to the second party the token and a transaction document requesting a transaction according to the agreement, wherein the second party upon receiving the transaction document and the token from the delegate applies each constraint in the token against the transaction document to determine whether the transaction document satisfies each constraint and accepts the transaction document for fulfillment only if the transaction document in fact satisfies each constraint, wherein the transaction document is representative of and describes the transaction and conforms to a pre-defined schema such that the transaction document is interrogated and understood according to the pre-defined schema, and wherein the transaction document is an electronic document that includes a digital signature based on a private key of the delegate and is verified based on a corresponding public key, wherein the token is an electronic certificate that includes a digital signature based on a private key of the first party corresponding to the public key of the first party as possessed by the second party and is verified based on such public key of the first party, and wherein the token includes the public key of the delegate, whereby the second party as possessing the public key of the first party applies such public key of the first party to the signature of the token to verify such token, obtains the public key of the delegate from the token, and applies the obtained public key of the delegate to the signature of the transaction document to verify such transaction document.