Patent ID: 7398239

Claim:
A method for calculating, collecting and disbursing one or more third party payments owed to one or more third parties resulting from one or more transactions affected on a wide area network by a customer, wherein the transaction concerns a service and/or product provided by a merchant, the method comprising: a) as a result of a customer affecting one or more electronic transactions for a product and/or service of a merchant, generating a first information packet on a first computer system on a first node of a wide area network, said first information packet containing transaction data; b) determining on a computer system on said first node of a wide area network whether or not said transaction data contains third party payment data and, if not, adding third party payment data to said transaction data; c) generating a second information packet, said second information packet containing said third party payment data; d) transmitting said second information packet to a second computer system on a second node of said wide area network; and e) determining on a computer system on said first node of a wide area network whether or not said first or second transaction data contains one or more amounts owed to one or more third parties; and, if so, subtracting from transaction financial data said one or more amounts owed to said one or more third parties, and transmitting said one or more amounts owed to said one or more third parties; and, if not, not performing any further functionality on said transaction data.