US006856974B1
(12) United States Patent (10) Patent N0.: US 6,856,974 B1
Ganesan et al. (45) Date of Patent: Feb. 15, 2005
(54) ELECTRONIC BILL PRESENTMENT OTHER PUBLICATIONS
WITH ENHANCED BILLER “Luring Customers With Bill Pay”, USBanker, Nov. 1997, p.
s16—s20.*
(75) Inventors Ravi Ganesan Roswell GA (US)_ Russell Redman, “Integrion Sets Bill—Pay With Visa Deal”,
Mark Todd Harris Alp’harena G’A Bank Systems Technology, Nov. 1997, p. 14.*
(US)_ Hans Danie] breyer Ga’hanna Sharona Talmor, “Pioneers in e—commerce”, The Banker,
OH (US); Kathryn Randall Wolfe, 1am‘. 1998’ p‘ 69_7.1'* .
Westerville OH (Us) Microsoft and First Data Form Internet Bill Payment
’ Company”, America’s Community Banker, Aug. 1997, p.
(73) Assignee: Checkfree Corporation, Norcross, GA 6__7'* _ _ _ _
(US) Bill Orr, “Microsoft/First Data: the mstant giant of Internet
Bill Payments”, ABA Banking Journal, Nov. 1997, p. 95.*
(*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this “Checkfree Delivers E—Bi11”, Internet Week, 5611 30, 1996,
patent is extended or adjusted under 35 P 1-*
U_S_C_ 154(k)) by 0 days_ Michael C. McChesney, “Banking in cyberspace: an invest
ment in itselt”, IEEE Spectrum, Feb. 1997, p. 54—59.*
(21) AppL NO‘: 09/301 068 “Utilities, Phone Companies Pilot Electronic Billing”, Item
’ Processing Report, Nov. 7, 1996, p. 1.*
(22) Filed: Apr. 28, 1999 Whaley, Carey, Creating Customer Convenience, Electric
_ _ Perspectives, v22n6, Nov/Dec. 1997, 2 pages.*
Related U-S- Apphcatlon Data Open Financial Exchange Bill Presentment, revieW copy of
s eci?cation, 1997.*
(63) Continuation of application No. 09/017,169, ?led on Feb. 2, p
1998, now Pat. No. 6,055,567. Primary Examiner—Hani M. KaZimi
7 Assistant Examiner—Charles R. Kyle
(51) Int. Cl. .............................................. .. G06F 17/60 (74) Attorney) Agent) Or Firm_Amoneni, Terry, Stout &
Kraus, LLP
(52) US. Cl. ............................ .. 705/40; 705/39; 705/35
(58) Field of Search ............................. .. 705/40, 35, 39 (57) ABSTRACT
(56) References Cited An electronic bill presentment system includes netWork, a
central netWork station, and a plurality of user and biller
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS netWork stations. Each of the user stations is associated With
a respective one of a plurality of users and is operable to
4,277,837 A 7/1981 Smoke“ """""""""" " 364/900 transmit ?rst requests for bills via the netWork. The central
2 3/ ggerson et a1‘ netWork station receives the transmitted ?rst requests and
4’713’837 A * 12;1987 G grson et a‘ 37/9/93 transmits, responsive thereto, bill availability information
’ ’ or on """" " via the netWork. The user stations receive the transmitted bill
(List continued on next page) availability information and are operable to transmit second
requests for bills via the netWork. Each of the biller stations
FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS is associated With a respective one of the plurality of billers.
CA WO 01/80102 A1 * 10/2001 G06F/17/60 The biller stations receive the transmitted second requests
EP 1 229 480 A1 * 7/2002 G06F/17/60 and transmit, resp onsive thereto, the re quested bills via the
WO US97/18398 10/1997 ........... .. G07F/7/10 network
WO US98/17329 8/1998
WO US98/19566 9/1998 3 Claims, 22 Drawing Sheets
E as
52 4k
\ 32 User Entity
as c @ ?u 5‘
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P /34 34\ c '
so so 6 \36
E @32 I 5° 1 @432 E
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Billing Enmy\‘° - 34 Banking Entity\3B
/ a“ Electronic Payment and
55 E Customer Service (EPCS) Entlly
Q \
US 6,856,974 B1
Page 2
US. PATENT DOCUMENTS 5,832,460 A * 11/1998 Bednar et a1. .............. .. 705/27
5,873,072 A * 2/1999 Kight et a1. ................ .. 705/40
5,025,373 A 6/1991 Keyserelr- e191- ------- -- 364/408 5,884,288 A * 3/1999 Chang et a1. ............... .. 705/40
5,220,501 A 6/1993 Lawlor et a1. ............ .. 364/408 5,893,080 A * 4/1999 MCGurl et a1~ ' “ 7O5/4O
5,231,571 A 7/1993 D’Agostmo ~364/408 5,920,847 A * 7/1999 Kolling e161. .............. .. 705/40
5,283,829 A 2/1994 Anderson ------------------ -- 380/24 5,956,700 A * 9/1999 Landry ...................... .. 705/40
5,287,270 A 2/1994 Hardy et a1. .............. .. 364/408 5963925 A * 1O/1999 Kolling et al' “ 7O5/4O
5,325,290 A 6/1994 Cauffman er a1- -- 364/4O1 5,974,146 A 10/1999 Randle et a1. .............. .. 380/24
5,326,959 A 7/1994 PeraZZa .................... .. 235/379 5,978,780 A * 11/1999 Watson ______________________ __ 705/40
5,336,870 A 8/1994 Hughes et a1. ............ .. 235/379 6,016,509 A * 1/2000 Dedrick _ 709/224
5,341,429 A 8/1994 Stringer er a1 380/23 6,032,133 A * 2/2000 Hilt et a1. ................... .. 705/40
5,347,632 A 9/1994 FilePP er a1- ------------- -- 395/200 6,044,362 A * 3/2000 Neely ........................ .. 705/34
5,383,113 A 1/1995 Klght et a1. .............. .. 364/401 6,049,786 A * 4/2OOO Smorodinsky ' “ 7O5/4O
5,420,405 A 5/1995 Chasek ----- - 235/379 6,055,567 A * 4/2000 Ganesan et a1. .......... .. 709/219
5,465,206 A * 11/1995 Hilt er a1- ----------------- -- 364/406 6,058,381 A * 5/2000 Nelson ...................... .. 705/40
5,483,445 A 1/1996 Pickering .................. .. 364/406 6,078,907 A * 6/2000 Lamm __ 705/40
5,594,910 A 1/1997 Filepp er a1- - 395/800 6,289,322 B1 * 9/2001 Kitchen et a1. ............. .. 705/40
5,655,089 A 8/1997 B11001 ----------------------- -- 395/240 6,292,789 B1 * 9/2001 SchutZer .................... .. 705/40
5,699,528 A 12/1997 Hogan ...................... .. 395/240 2001/0056508 A1 * 12/2001 Arneson et al' 709618
5,710,889 A 1/1998 Clark 9191- - - 395/244 2002/0059139 A1 * 5/2002 Evans ....................... .. 705/40
5,727,249 A 3/1998 Pollm ------------------------ -- 705/40 2003/0023552 A1 * 1/2003 Kight et a1. ................ .. 705/40
5,768,521 A * 6/1998 Dedrick .................... .. 709/224
5,794,221 A * 8/1998 Egendorf ................... .. 705/40 * cited by examiner
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