Message Broker for Redemption of Digital Incentives

• US 20100299198A1
• Filed: 05/20/2010
• Published: 11/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Inmar Clearing Incorporated
• Original Assignee: M-DOT, Inc. (Imaginetics LLC)
• Inventors: Rapp, Gregory H., Kavis, Michael J., Catania, William M.
• Granted Patent: US 10,395,269 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3829 involving key management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0211 Determining the effectiveness of discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0238 at point-of-sale [POS]

Abstract

A message broker for redemption of digital incentives at a point-of-sale terminal for a commercial transaction that is able to communicate with a central database external to the point-of-sale terminal. The central database contains unique customer registration information, unique identifiers assigned to the unique customer registration information, business rules for redemption of digital incentives. Redemption of digital incentives at the point-of-sale terminal occurs at the time of purchase as follows: the customer'"'"'s purchases are recorded in a basket list at the point-of-sale terminal; the customer presents their unique identifier; point-of-sale terminal initiates an instruction to process a transaction; the message broker routes the unique identifier and the basket list to the central database which applies the rules for redemption of digital incentives and returns validated applicable digital incentives to the message broker which forwards the validated digital incentives to the point-of-sale terminal for redemption; the point-of-sale terminal applies the validated digital incentives to the customer'"'"'s purchase; and the message broker routes an acknowledgement message to the central database.

Claims

1. A message broker for redemption of digital incentives at a point-of-sale terminal for a commercial transaction comprising:

the message broker able to communicate with a central database external to the point-of-sale terminal, said central database containing unique customer registration information and unique identifiers assigned to said unique customer registration information, with rules for redemption of digital incentives including at least all of the attributes of an industry-standard barcode, plus additional rules as required by specific application;

redemption of digital incentives by a customer at said point-of-sale terminal occurs at the time of purchase by;

the customer'"'"'s purchases are recorded in a basket list at the point-of-sale terminal;

the customer presents said unique identifier;

an instruction to process a transaction is initiated at the point-of-sale terminal;

said message broker routes said unique identifier and said basket list to said central database;

said central database applies said rules for redemption of digital incentives;

said central database returns validated applicable digital incentives to said message broker; and

said message broker forwards the validated digital incentives to said point-of-sale location for redemption;

said point-of-sale terminal applies the validated digital incentives to the customer'"'"'s purchase;

said message broker routes an acknowledgement message to said central database confirming the application of the validated digital incentives.

2. The message broker of claim 1 in which the customer is informed of a successful redemption of digital incentives by any from the group consisting of SMS text message, e-mail, mail, telephone call, and printed receipt from said point-of-sale terminal.

3. The system of claim 1 in which the customer presents said unique identifier from any of the group consisting of a virtual smart card, a cellular phone, a magnetic strip on a swipe card, a bar code, biometrics information, a telephone number, an e-mail address, a pin number, an RFID tag, and an account number.

4. The message broker of claim 1 in which said point-of-sale terminal is any from the list consisting of retail cash registers, internet check-out web pages, broadcast television signals, and cable television signals.

5. The message broker of claim 1 in which said message broker also routes information to said central database include any from the list consisting of time specific information, location specific information, order totals, other discounts, voided transactions, returned items, and UPC characteristics.

6. A method for redemption of digital incentives at a point-of-sale terminal for a commercial transaction using a message broker comprising:

enabling the message broker able to communicate with a central database external to the point-of-sale terminal, the central database containing unique customer registration information and unique identifiers assigned to the unique customer registration information, with rules for redemption of digital incentives including at least all of the attributes of an industry-standard barcode, plus additional rules as required by specific application;

redeeming digital incentives by the customer at said point-of-sale terminal at the time of purchase by;

recording the customer'"'"'s purchases in a basket list at the point-of-sale terminal;

the customer presenting the unique identifier;

initiating an instruction to process a transaction at the point-of-sale terminal;

routing the unique identifier and the basket list to the central database with the message broker;

applying the rules for redemption of digital incentives at the central database;

the central database returning validated applicable digital incentives to the message broker;

the message broker forwarding the validated digital incentives to the point-of-sale terminal for redemption;

the point-of-sale terminal applying the validated digital incentives to the customer'"'"'s purchase; and

the message broker routing an acknowledgement message to the central database confirming the application of the validated digital incentives.

7. The method of claim 6 in which the point-of-sale terminal is any from the list consisting of retail cash registers, internet check-out web pages, broadcast television signals, cable television signals, and cellular telephones.

8. The method of claim 6 in which the customer is informed of a successful redemption of digital incentives by any from the group consisting of SMS text message, e-mail, mail, telephone call, and printed receipt from said authenticated existing point-of-sale terminals.

9. The method of claim 6 in which the customer presents the unique identifier from any of the group consisting of a virtual smart card, a cellular phone, a magnetic strip on a swipe card, a bar code, biometrics information, a telephone number, an e-mail address, a pin number, an RFID tag, and an account number.

10. The method of claim 6 in which the unique customer registration information includes encrypted access codes.

11. The method of claim 6 in which all communications over the internet are conducted over secure connections.

12. The method of claim 6 in which the message broker also routes information to the central database including any from the list consisting of time specific information, location specific information, order totals, other discounts, voided transactions, returned items, and UPC characteristics.