Patent ID: 7908226

Claim:
A system for purchasing a product, comprising: (a) a buyer computer for purchasing products from seller computers using a virtual payment account maintained by a commerce gateway, a product purchase being initiated by the buyer computer sending an inquiry to a seller computer to purchase the product from the seller computer using the virtual payment account; (b) a seller computer for receiving requests from buyer computers, to purchase products from the seller computer using virtual payment accounts maintained by a commerce gateway; and (c) a commerce gateway for maintaining virtual payment accounts, interfacing with credit processing servers, and authorizing and settling product purchases using said virtual payment accounts, wherein: (i) said seller computer is programmed, in response to said seller computer receiving a purchase inquiry from said buyer computer to purchase a product using the virtual payment account, to return a purchase offer to said buyer computer; (ii) said buyer computer is programmed, in response to receiving a purchase offer returned by said seller computer, to: (1) establish a secure connection to said commerce gateway; (2) determine if the buyer computer has an installed digital certificate that identifies a virtual payment account; and (3) if the buyer computer has an installed digital certificate that identifies a virtual payment account, send an authentication container to the commerce gateway that includes information about the virtual payment account obtained from the installed digital certificate; (iii) said commerce gateway is programmed, in response to receiving the authentication container from said buyer computer, to determine whether said buyer computer is associated with a virtual payment account and return the result of said determination to said buyer computer; (iv) said seller computer is programmed, in response to said seller computer receiving a confirmation purchase from said buyer computer that includes information regarding said virtual payment account associated with said buyer computer, to request purchase authorization from said commerce gateway; and (v) said seller computer is programmed, in response to said seller computer receiving purchase authorization from said commerce gateway, to provide said product to a buyer associated with said buyer computer and request payment from said commerce gateway.