Patent ID: 7801771

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for configuring access to Web services for Web service consumers, the method comprising: receiving from multiple providers of Web services indications of multiple Web services to be made available to consumers of Web services; for each of the indicated Web services, automatically configuring one or more associated distinct usage models for use in controlling access to the indicated Web service, the automatic configuring of the one or more associated distinct usage models being performed by one or more programmed computing systems and including, providing information to a provider of the indicated Web service to indicate multiple predefined types of use prices available for use with the indicated Web service and to indicate one or more types of use restrictions available for use with the indicated Web service; and for each of the associated usage models of the indicated Web service, receiving one or more indications from the provider of the indicated Web service that specify a use price and one or more use restrictions for the usage model, such that the specified use price is of one of the predefined use price types and is to be charged for use of the indicated Web service by Web service consumers who select the usage model and such that each of the specified one or more use restrictions is of one of the use restriction types and is to restrict use of the indicated Web service by Web service consumers who select the usage model; and after the automatic configuring of the one or more usage models for one of the indicated Web Services, receiving an indication from a Web service consumer of one of the configured usage models for the one indicated Web service that the web service consumer has selected for use, and responding to the received indication from the Web service consumer by, if use of the one indicated Web service by the Web service consumer does not violate the use restrictions of the selected one usage model and if payment is available for the use price of the selected one usage model, automatically facilitating access of the Web service consumer to the one indicated Web service.