Patent ID: 7729994

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for automatically authorizing programmatic transactions based on predefined instructions, the method comprising: receiving a request related to a potential programmatic transaction between a first party and a Web service provider that includes an invocation of at least one Web service functionality of the Web service provider and an associated financial payment from the first party to the Web service provider for that Web service functionality; obtaining a first reference token of the first party that is for use in determining whether to authorize the associated financial payment for the programmatic transaction, the first reference token being associated with a first predefined payment instruction rule set of the first party that includes one or more rules for determining whether to authorize payment of financial amounts for potential transactions based at least in part on non-financial information about the potential transactions; automatically determining whether to authorize the associated financial payment from the first party to the Web service provider based at least in part on whether the first instruction rule set is determined to be compatible with a second predefined payment instruction rule set of the Web service provider to which a second reference token of the Web service provider is associated, the automatic determining being performed by one or more programmed computing systems; and after the associated financial payment is determined to be authorized based at least in part on the first and second payment instruction rule sets being determined to be compatible, facilitating providing of the at least one Web service functionality to the first party.