Community concept for payment using RF ID transponders

• US 7,778,876 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2005
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amtech Systems LLC (Roper Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: TC License Limited
• Inventors: Pinkus, Ron, Burchell, Michael, Gravelle, Kelly
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender; F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Haider; Fawaad
• Application Number:
  US11/084,162
• Publication Number:
  US 20050218214A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,975 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/023 the neutral party being a clearing house
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing

Abstract

Payment systems and methods using wireless transponders in a community of retailers are disclosed. The disclosed systems and method include a community of retailers, an RFID transponder card, a number of readers for reading an identification number from the RFID transponder card when a subscriber carrying the card enters the community, a local computer in communication with the plurality of points of sale for receiving the identification number and associating the identification number with a subscriber account, and a Clearinghouse computer for validating the transponder card and notifying the local computer of the card'"'"'s validation.

Claims

1. A payment method comprising:

reading information from a wireless identification tag when the tag enters a community including a plurality of points of sale, the points of sale for processing a transaction including a request for transaction and authorization for transaction;

initiating an authorization process based on the information read from the tag by a reader before a carrier of the tag reaches any of the plurality of points of sale;

associating a subscriber with the information read from the wireless identification tag;

validating the wireless identification tag;

receiving a transaction request from a first point of sale, the first point of sale being the first point of sale from the plurality of points of sale with access to the wireless identification tag or the carrier of the wireless identification tag, the reader being separate and spaced apart from the points of sale and placed at the entrance of the community to read from the wireless identification tag before the carrier of the wireless identification tag reaches the first point of sale;

authorizing a payment with the wireless identification tag at the first point of sale upon cross-correlating secondary data provided by a carrier of the wireless identification tag to the information read from the tag;

selecting a source of funds for payment with the tag, wherein validating comprises;

searching for active subscriber account numbers; and

approving the payment if the information from the tag corresponds to an active subscriber account;

forwarding a subscriber account status to a local computer associated with the plurality of points of sale immediately after reading information from the tag;

consolidating payments with the tag into a single payment before selecting the source of funds; and

authorizing transactions at second and subsequent points of sale within the community in real time upon validation of the authenticity of the carrier of the tag at the respective subsequent points of sale within the community.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a source of funds for payment with the tag, wherein the selecting a source of funds comprises selecting a subscriber account when a pre-paid balance in the subscriber account exceeds an amount due at payment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting a source of funds comprises selecting a credit account when a low balance threshold in a subscriber account does not exceed an amount due at payment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting a source of funds comprises selecting a check card account when a pre-paid balance in a subscriber account does not exceed an amount due at payment.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising topping up a subscriber account and selecting the subscriber account.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein topping up the subscriber account comprises:

transferring funds from a secondary account into the subscriber account when a balance in the subscriber account does not exceed an amount due at payment.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the topping up the subscriber account comprises:

transferring funds from a secondary account into the subscriber account when a balance in the subscriber account is below a predetermined threshold.