Patent ID: 7628334

Claim:
A content data usage apparatus in combination with a cellular phone having an IC chip that stores electronic money and at least one electronic coupon, and having a program installed for reading from and writing to the IC chip, comprising: an interface unit configured to communicate with a remote settlement server via the cellular phone; a protected storage unit configured to locally store a plurality of preset content data in an unusable state where a user is not permitted to access the preset content data; a content selection unit configured to allow the user to select and purchase a desired one of the plurality of preset content data; and a content use control unit configured to allow the remote settlement server to settle the purchase of the selected content data to thereby enable access to the selected content data, wherein the content use control unit brings the selected content data into a usable state when the interface unit receives a completion notification indicating that the purchase is completed from the remote settlement server via the cellular phone, wherein the interface unit communicates with the cellular phone to access the program in the cellular phone to read from or write to the IC chip, and wherein the electronic coupon stored in the IC chip is activated for use with the content data usage apparatus with an ID number of the content data usage apparatus input when the program is installed in the cellular phone or by a specified operation with the cellular phone after the program is installed in the cellular phone.