PAYMENT SYSTEM TO FACILITATE TRANSACTIONS

• US 20110258122A1
• Filed: 04/14/2011
• Published: 10/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Handle Financial Inc.
• Original Assignee: Handle Financial Inc.
• Inventors: Shader, Daniel Jeffrey, Minor, John Paul, Perkins, Richard Scott, Boulanger, Jean-Sébastien, Lamarche, Marc-André
• Application Number:
  US13/087,271
• Publication Number:
  US 20110258122A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/67
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems and method for facilitating transactions between a merchant-partner and a customer. In general, the systems and methods include: (a) staging a transaction between the merchant-partner and the customer; (b) tokenizing the transaction by linking one or more transaction instructions to a token ID; (c) providing the customer with the token ID, wherein the customer can then present the token ID and a payment to a point-of-sale terminal; (d) receiving confirmation that the customer has presented, to a point-of-sale terminal, the token ID and a payment in accordance with the one or more transaction instructions; (e) notifying the merchant-partner that the customer provided the payment to the point-of-sale terminal; and (f) settling the transaction between the point-of-sale terminal and the merchant-partner.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating a transaction, the method comprising:

(a) staging a transaction by linking one or more transaction instructions to an end-user;

(b) tokenizing the transaction by linking the one or more transaction instructions to a token ID;

(c) providing the end-user with the token ID;

(d) receiving confirmation that the end-user has presented, to a point-of-sale terminal, the token ID and a payment in accordance with the one or more transaction instructions;

(e) notifying a merchant-partner that the end-user provided the payment to the point-of-sale terminal; and

(f) settling the transaction between the point-of-sale terminal and the merchant-partner.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further comprises:

providing the end-user with a checkout interface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further comprises:

linking the one or more transaction instructions to an end-user account maintained by the merchant-partner.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further comprises:

linking the one or more transaction instructions to a merchant-partner transaction ID.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein step (b) further comprises:

linking the token ID to the merchant-partner transaction ID.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the token ID is provided to the end-user via the merchant-partner or point-of-sale terminal.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the token ID is provided to the end-user in a form selected from the group consisting of:

a printout slip, a transaction card, a printed barcode, a pin number, a near-field communication chip, a mobile device prompt, a mobile device barcode, and any combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) further comprises:

providing the point-of-sale terminal with an application program interface such that the point-of-sale terminal can confirm that the end-user has presented the token ID and provided the payment to the point-of-sale terminal.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to step (e), the method further comprises:

contacting the merchant-partner to confirm the validity of the transaction instructions.

9. A method of facilitating a transaction, the method comprising:

(a) tokenizing a transaction by linking one or more transaction instructions a token ID;

(b) providing an end-user with the token ID;

(c) receiving confirmation that the end-user has presented, to a point-of-sale terminal, the token ID and a payment in accordance with the one or more transaction instructions; and

(d) notifying a merchant-partner that the end-user has provided the payment to the point-of-sale terminal

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the token ID is provided to the end-user via the merchant-partner or point-of-sale terminal.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the token ID is provided to the end-user in a form selected from the group consisting of:

a printout slip, a transaction card, a printed barcode, a pin number, a near-field communication chip, a mobile device prompt, a mobile device barcode, and any combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein step (c) further comprises:

providing the point-of-sale terminal with an application program interface such that the point-of-sale terminal can confirm that the end-user has presented the token ID and provided the payment to the point-of-sale terminal.

22. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

settling the transaction between the point-of-sale terminal and the merchant-partner.

23. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

contacting the merchant-partner to confirm the validity of the staged transaction.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

contacting the point-of-sale terminal to reconfirm the validity of the staged transaction.

13. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to

(a) tokenize a staged transaction by linking one or more transaction instructions to a token ID;

(b) provide an end-user with the token ID;

(c) receive confirmation that the end-user has presented, to a point-of-sale terminal, the token ID and a payment in accordance with the one or more transaction instructions;

(d) notify a merchant-partner that the end-user has provided the payment to the point-of-sale terminal; and

(e) settle the transaction between the point-of-sale terminal and the merchant-partner.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to prepare the staged transaction by linking the one or more transaction instructions to the end-user.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to provide the end-user with a checkout interface.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to prepare the token ID in a form selected from the group consisting of;

a printout slip, a transaction card, a printed barcode, a pin number, a near-field communication chip, a mobile device prompt, a mobile device barcode, and any combination thereof.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to link the one or more transaction instructions to an end-user account maintained by the merchant-partner.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to link the one or more transaction instructions to a merchant-partner transaction ID.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to link the token ID to the merchant-partner transaction ID.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising:

instructions executable by at least one processing device that, when executed, cause the processing device to interface with the point-of-sale terminal in order to receive confirmation that the end-user presented the token ID and provided the payment to the point-of-sale terminal.