Method and apparatus for management of electronic receipts on portable devices

• US 7,827,077 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2003
• Issued: 11/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shiftan, Nicholas, Gauthier, Patrick, Lins, Julie
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart; Matthew S
• Assistant Examiner(s): PARIKH, HARSHAD R
• Application Number:
  US10/676,508
• Publication Number:
  US 20040220964A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,590 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28, 705/34
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/047 using payment protocols involving electronic receipts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/209 Specified transaction journal output feature, e.g. printed receipt or voice output
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3221 Access to banking information through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/346 Cards serving only as information carrier of service
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/389 Keeping log of transactions for guaranteeing non-repudiation of a transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system

Abstract

A system for managing electronic receipts is provided. According to one aspect, the system includes a portable device, a base device, a user device and an electronic receipts administration system. The electronic receipts administration system provides the base device with the appropriate data to allow the base device to generate, store and manage electronic receipts accordingly. A user uses the portable device to conduct a transaction with the base device. The base device uses a variety of information to generate an electronic receipt for the transaction. Such information includes, for example, information stored on the portable device, information stored locally on the base device and information stored on another device such as an electronic cash register. The electronic receipt is then stored on the portable device. The user device allows the user to subsequently retrieve the electronic receipt for management purposes.

Claims

1. A system for managing electronic receipts, comprising:

a base device communicatively coupled to a portable device, the portable device or an aspect of the portable device being associated with an account of a user of the portable device, the account being issued by an issuer, the base device associated with an identifier, the base device storing a plurality of electronic receipt policies, the base device generating an electronic receipt corresponding to a transaction between the user and a service provider via the portable device for a service and/or product of the service provider using a select policy of the plurality of electronic receipt policies, and the base device forwarding the generated electronic receipt to the portable device for storage, the base device having a local electronic receipt database that is used to store electronic receipts generated by the base device, the base device having a local electronic receipt activity log that is used to maintain historical information for transactions conducted via the base device;

wherein which one of the plurality of policies is the select policy used for generating the electronic receipt is selected by the base device and depends on the transaction for the service and/or product between the user and the service provider, the select policy being managed by a receipt administration system,

wherein the base device is a point of sale device, which separately receives from the service provider information regarding price paid for the service and/or product of the transaction, and also information regarding the account of the user of the portable device that was approved by the issuer to pay for the service and/or product of the transaction, for incorporation into the electronic receipt, and

wherein the point of sale device generates the electronic receipt without needing to retrieve additional information from the receipt administration system to generate the electronic receipt using the transaction dependent select policy of the plurality of electronic receipt policies, and wherein information from the local electronic receipt database and the local electronic receipt activity log is exported to the receipt administration system at predetermined time intervals.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the select policy is associated with the service provider associated with the transaction.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the receipt administration system provides at least one of the plurality of electronic receipt policies.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the receipt administration system periodically updates at least one of the plurality of policies and forwards the at least one updated policy to the base device.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the receipt administration system is one of a plurality of receipt administration systems.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the user of the portable device is able to use the base device to restore a deleted electronic receipt on that portable device by using contents of the local receipt storage.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of electronic receipt policies correspond to a plurality of different service providers.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein information relating to the identifier is incorporated into the electronic receipt generated by the base device.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the electronic receipt is tamper-proof.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of receipt policies include different receipt validity periods.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of receipt policies include different receipt security requirements.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of receipt policies include different conditions for receipt retrieval.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of receipt policies include different purchase receipt management policies.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the local electronic receipt database contains a copy of a receipt for a prior transaction between the user and the service provider.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the base device is configured to retrieve information from the copy of the receipt for the prior transaction in order to claim, exchange, or return the service and/or product of the transaction between the user and the service provider.

16. The system of 15 wherein the base device is configured to update the copy of the receipt for the prior transaction of the local electronic receipt database in order to reflect the claim, exchange, or return of the service and/or product of the transaction between the user and the service provider.

17. The system of 16 wherein the base device is configured to update a copy of the receipt for the prior transaction of the portable device in order to reflect the exchange the service and/or product of the transaction between the user and the service provider.

18. A method of managing electronic receipts, comprising:

receiving a plurality of electronic receipt policies from one or more administrative systems at a base device, the plurality of electronic receipt policies corresponding to different service providers;

selecting a policy from the plurality of electronic receipt policies, using the base device, the policy being used to generate an electronic receipt associated with a transaction between a user and a service provider via the portable device for a service and/or product of the service provider, the transaction made via a portable device, the portable device or an aspect of the portable device being associated with an account of the user of the portable device, the account being issued by an issuer, the selected policy corresponding to a service provider associated with the transaction,

wherein which one of the plurality of electronic receipt policies is the policy that is selected by the base device depends on the transaction for the service and/or product between the user and the service provider, the select policy being managed by the one or more administration systems,

generating, at the base device, an electronic receipt using the selected policy; and

forwarding, from the base device, the generated electronic receipt to a portable device communicating with the base device for receipt management,

storing the electronic receipt at local electronic receipt database of the base device;

maintaining a local electronic receipt activity log at the base device, the log being used to maintain historical information for transactions conducted via the base device;

wherein the base device is a point of sale device, which separately receives from the service provider information regarding price paid for the service and/or product of the transaction, and also information regarding the account of the user of the portable device that was approved by the issuer to pay for the service and/or product of the transaction, for incorporation into the electronic receipt, and

wherein the point of sale device generates the electronic receipt without needing to retrieve additional receipt relative information from the administrative system to generate the electronic receipt using the selected policy of the plurality of electronic receipt policies, and wherein information from the local electronic receipt database and the local electronic receipt activity log is exported to the administration system at predetermined time intervals.

19. The method of managing electronic receipts of claim 18 wherein receipt management comprises receipt duplication, receipt storage, receipt sharing, receipt deletion, and receipt restoration by a user.

20. The method of managing electronic receipts of claim 18 further comprising automatically deleting the generated electronic receipt on the portable consumer device upon the end of a validity period.

21. The method of managing electronic receipts of claim 18 further comprising automatically deleting the generated electronic receipt on the portable consumer device if the electronic receipt is confirmed for deletion.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein the plurality of receipt policies include different receipt validity periods.

23. The method of claim 18 wherein the local electronic receipt database contains a copy of a receipt for a prior transaction between the user and the service provider.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the base device is configured to retrieve information from the copy of the receipt for the prior transaction in order to claim, exchange, or return the service and/or product of the transaction between the user and the service provider.

25. The method of 24 wherein the base device is configured to update the copy of the receipt for the prior transaction of the local electronic receipt database in order to reflect the claim, exchange, or return of the service and/or product of the transaction between the user and the service provider.

26. The method of 25 wherein the base device is configured to update a copy of the receipt for the prior transaction of the portable device in order to reflect the exchange the service and/or product of the transaction between the user and the service provider.