Tagged Products And Uses Thereof For After Point-Of-Sale Revenue Sharing

1 . A method for providing after point-of-sale revenue sharing comprising:

tagging a product with a distributor code associated with a distributor;

associating the distributor code with a transaction by a user with a third-party provider resulting in revenue, the transaction being executed through the tagged product; and

attributing a portion of the revenue generated by the transaction to the distributor associated with the distributor code.

2 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the user is unaware of the tagging, associated and attributing steps.

3 . The method according to claim 1 wherein subsequently-installed products perpetuate the tagging, associating and attributing steps.

4 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the tagged product is software.

5 . The method according to claim 4 wherein the tagged product is software and the transaction is an upgrade.

6 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the transaction is a sale of goods or a provision of services.

7 . A method for facilitating after point-of-sale revenue sharing comprising:

contracting with a distributor who provides tagged products;

receiving notice of a third party providing a service or product accessed through the tagged product in a transaction;

receiving revenue from the transaction;

associating the revenue with the tagged product and distributor; and

dispensing a portion of the revenue to the distributor according to the contract.

8 . The method according to claim 7 wherein the tagged product is software and the transaction is an upgrade, a sale of goods or a provision of services.

9 . The method according to claim 7 wherein the distributor receives the tagged product from a vendor entity, and a portion of the revenue is dispensed to the vendor entity.

10 . A method for facilitating after point-of-sale revenue sharing comprising:

contracting with an entity to provide a tagged product to a user;

contracting with a clearinghouse to receive a portion of revenue received from revenue realized from products or services accessed through the tagged product;

providing a tagged product to a user; and

receiving revenue from the clearinghouse.

11 . The method according to claim 10 wherein the tagged product is software and the product or service is a software upgrade, a sale of goods or a provision of services.

12 . The method according to claim 10 wherein the tagged product is software and the product or service is sale of goods.

13 . The method according to claim 10 wherein the entity contracts with the clearinghouse and receives a portion of the revenue received from revenue realized from products or services accessed through the tagged products.

14 . A method for facilitating after point-of-sale revenue sharing comprising:

contracting with a clearinghouse to provide revenue received for a product or service accessed through a tagged product;

contracting with an entity to have the product or service accessible through the tagged product;

receiving revenue from a user for providing the product or service accessed through the tagged product; and

providing a portion of revenue received from providing the product or service to the user to the clearinghouse.

15 . The method according to claim 14 wherein the tagged product is software and the product or service is a software upgrade, a sale of goods or the provision of services.

16 . The method according to claim 14 wherein the entity is the clearinghouse.

17 . The method according to claim 14 , wherein the entity is a third party entity wherein the third party entity receives a portion of the revenue.

18 . A tagged software product having a distributor code associated with a distributor, where revenue resulting from a transaction by a user with a third party provider executed through the tagged software is associated with the distributor resulting in a portion of revenue being dispensed to the distributor.

19 . The tagged software product of claim 18 , wherein the tagged software is associated with the distributor and revenue is dispensed to the distributor without input from the user.

20 . A computer-readable storage medium encoding a computer program for executing a computer process on a computer system, the computer process comprising:

tagging a product with a distributor code associated with a distributor;

associating the distributor code with a transaction by a user with a third-party provider resulting in revenue, the transaction being executed through the tagged product; and

attributing a portion of the revenue generated by the transaction to the distributor associated with the distributor code.