Patent ID: 7003789

Claim:
A method for enabling television (“TV”) commerce to generate revenue streams for TV originators in an interactive television environment, said environment having a connection to a computer network and said method comprising the steps of: initiating a TV commerce transaction by a consumer using a device in said interactive television environment, wherein: said transaction pertains to an offering of a merchant; said device is communicably coupled to a computer of said merchant and to an issuer of a payment account of said consumer; and said computer of said merchant is further communicably coupled to an acquirer that is distinct from, and that processes payments for, said merchant; gathering, at said device, TV context information related to a TV context in which said offering is presented to said consumer, wherein said TV context information enables identifying one or more TV originators, each of which is distinct from said merchant; digitally signing said gathered TV context information, at said device; transmitting said digitally-signed TV context information with a payment authorization request sent from said device to said issuer of said payment account, wherein said payment authorization request requests authorization of payment, using said payment account, for said transaction; determining, by said issuer, whether said issuer authorizes said payment using said payment account, and if so, performing steps of: including said digitally-signed transmitted TV context information in an authorization token created by said issuer; digitally signing, by said issuer said authorization token; and sending, from said issuer to said device, a payment authorization, wherein said payment authorization comprises said authorization token, with said TV context information included therein; forwarding said payment authorization from said device to said computer of said merchant; transmitting said digitally-signed authorization token with a payment capture request sent from said computer of said merchant to said, wherein said payment capture request requests said acquirer to collect, from said issuer, said payment for said transaction; verifying, by said acquirer, that said issuer authorized said payment and that said TV context information has not been altered by verifying said issuer's digital signature on said authorization token and said digital signature on said TV context information, respectively; and collecting, by said acquirer upon a successful outcome of said verifying step, said payment for said transaction from said issuer, and for automatically allocating a portion of said collected payment to one or more of said TV originators, according to said TV context information received in said digitally-signed authorization token from said issuer and reducing an amount of said collected payment to be paid to said merchant by said automatically allocated portion.