Bill payment apparatus and method
First Claim
1. A method of processing payment of a bill on behalf of a payee to a billing entity that issued the bill, the method comprising:
- (a) generating an electronic image of the bill at a service center;
(b) transmitting the image of the bill from the service center to a central bill payment service via a communication network;
(c) extracting bill payment information from the image of the bill at the central bill payment service;
(d) designating a monetary amount to be paid to the billing entity based at least in part on the bill payment information; and
(e) initiating payment of the monetary amount to the billing entity on behalf of the payee.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The invention provides a method of processing the payment of a bill on behalf of a payee to a billing entity that issued the bill. The payee takes the bill to a service center, such as located in a convenience store or check cashing store, and presents the bill to a clerk. At the service center, an electronic image of the bill is generated such as using a scanner. The scanned image is then transmitted from the service center to a central bill payment service via a communication network, such as the Internet. At the central bill payment service, bill payment information is extracted from the image of the bill. A monetary amount to be paid to the billing entity is designated by the payee, and payment of the amount to the billing entity is initiated by the central bill payment service on behalf of the payee. The payee may choose to have the payment made by electronic funds transfer, by check or by priority payment via a credit card account or a debit card account. In a preferred embodiment, the method includes identifying fields within the image of the bill that contain the bill payment information, recognizing characters within the fields and extracting the bill payment information from the recognized characters.
118 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of processing payment of a bill on behalf of a payee to a billing entity that issued the bill, the method comprising:
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(a) generating an electronic image of the bill at a service center;
(b) transmitting the image of the bill from the service center to a central bill payment service via a communication network;
(c) extracting bill payment information from the image of the bill at the central bill payment service;
(d) designating a monetary amount to be paid to the billing entity based at least in part on the bill payment information; and
(e) initiating payment of the monetary amount to the billing entity on behalf of the payee. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An apparatus for processing payment of a bill on behalf of a payee to a billing entity that issued the bill, the apparatus comprising:
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means provided at a service center for generating an electronic image of the bill;
means for transmitting the image of the bill from the service center to a central bill payment service via a communication network;
means provided at the central bill payment service for extracting bill payment information from the image of the bill;
means provided at a service center for designating a monetary amount to be paid to the billing entity based at least in part on the bill payment information; and
means for initiating payment of the monetary amount to the billing entity on behalf of the payee. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An apparatus for processing payment of a bill on behalf of a payee to a billing entity that issued the bill, the apparatus comprising:
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a service center computing system in communication with a communication network, the service center computing system including;
an image scanning device for generating an electronic image of the bill; and
a service center computer connected to the scanning device, the service center computer for receiving the image of the bill from the image scanning device, for transmitting the image of the bill via the communication network, and for designating a monetary amount of the bill to be paid to the billing entity; and
a bill payment service computing system in communication with the communication network, the bill payment service computing system including;
a bill payment server computer for receiving the image of the bill from the communication network, extracting bill payment information from the image of the bill and initiating payment of the monetary amount to the billing entity on behalf of the payee; and
a billing entity database for storing the bill payment information. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of processing payment of a bill on behalf of a payee to a billing entity that issued the bill, the method comprising:
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(a) generating an electronic image of the bill at a service center;
(b) transmitting the image of the bill from the service center to a central bill payment service via a communication network;
(c) printing a check payable to the billing entity in payment of the bill; and
(d) printing the image of the bill on the check.
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Specification