Authorizing payment subsequent to RF transactions

• US 7,889,052 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2003
• Issued: 02/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Xatra Fund MX LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Williamson, John R., VonWald, Kristin L., Shah, Sejal Ajit, Scheding, Kathryn D., Saunders, Peter D., Perry, Trevor J., Mayers, Alexandra, Isenberg, Susan E., Hood, Matthew C., Elwood, Jennifer Anne, Bonalle, David S., Bliman, Michal, Berardi, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khan, Omer S
• Application Number:
  US10/340,352
• Publication Number:
  US 20030167207A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,958 Days
• Field of Search: 235/380, 235/381, 235/382, 340/10.1, 340/5.61, 705/16
• US Class Current: 340/5.8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/00 Payment architectures, schemes or protocols apparatus for performing or posting payment transactions G07F7/08, G07F19/00; electronic cash registers G07G1/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• 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 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/327 Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/342 Cards defining paid or billed services or quantities
• 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 20/40145 Biometric identity checks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/29 the pass containing active electronic elements, e.g. smartcards
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/025 by means, e.g. cards, providing billing information at the time of purchase, e.g. identification of seller or purchaser, quantity of goods delivered or to be delivered
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3234 involving additional secure or trusted devices, e.g. TPM, smartcard, USB or software token network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using an additional device in a packet data network H04L63/0853

Abstract

A transponder-reader payment system includes a fob including a transponder, and a RFID reader for interrogating the transponder. The system may further include a payment device separate and distinct from the fob, but associated with payment account mutually shared with the fob. In exemplary operation, the fob identifying information, or the payment device information, may be presented to the RFID reader for completion of a transaction request. A process server may receive the transaction request and satisfy the transaction request in accordance with a predetermined payment criteria. The process server may additionally augment a rewards account based on fob or payment device usage, thereby incenting fob usage in one instance and payment device usage in the other.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a preloaded value authorization server (PLAS), transaction identifying information and payment device identifying information from an issuer account server (IAS) in response to the payment device identifying information including a marker that indicates a Radio Frequency (RF) payment device is associated with a preloaded value data file maintained in an issuer database, wherein the IAS receives a merchant transaction request that includes the transaction identifying information and the payment device identifying information, wherein the payment device identifying information is associated with the RF payment device, and wherein the transaction identifying information includes a transaction value;

determining, at the PLAS, that the merchant transaction request complies with a risk criteria that includes a payment device usage history;

authorizing the merchant transaction request at the PLAS in response to the determining that the merchant transaction request complies with the risk criteria, wherein the authorizing the merchant transaction request occurs prior to determining a value present in the preloaded value data file and prior to communicating with the issuer database, wherein the IAS transmits a transaction authorization to a merchant in response to the authorizing the merchant transaction request; and

assessing the transaction value against the value present in the preloaded value data file in the issuer database, subsequent to the IAS transmitting the transaction authorization to the merchant.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically reloading the value present in the preloaded value data file.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising automatically reloading the value present in the preloaded value data file in response to the value being less than the transaction value.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the automatically reloading is in accordance with a reload protocol data file.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the reload protocol data file includes a reload indicia comprising at least one of a maximum reload value over a defined time period, a selected re-occurring time interval, or a maximum number of reloads.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the marker indicates that the RF payment device is associated with a direct link account.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the direct link account includes at least one of a credit card account, a debit card account, a rewards account, or a loyalty account.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a direct link account code is stored in the issuer database.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the marker further indicates that the value present in the preloaded value data file is zero.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein assessing the transaction value against the value present in the preloaded value data file comprises assessing the transaction value against the direct link account in response to the value present in the preloaded value data file being zero.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the merchant transaction request further comprises a reload indicia update request.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising updating the reload indicia in response to the reload indicia update request.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the PLAS transmits the transaction identifying information to a second issuer account server in response to the marker indicating that the RF payment device is associated with the direct link account.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the second issuer account server communicates with the issuer database to facilitate assessing the transaction value against the direct link account.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising authorizing the merchant transaction request in response to the merchant transaction request being in accordance with a merchant approval protocol.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the merchant approval protocol includes at least one of approving a transaction below a certain amount, approving a transaction at a particular merchant, approving a transaction for a particular good or service, or approving a transaction at a particular location.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the risk criteria further includes at least one of a transaction amount limit for a specified time period, a predetermined reloading rule, or a user-defined limit.

18. An issuer system, comprising:

an issuer database configured to maintain a preloaded value data file associated with an RF payment device; and

a preloaded value authorization server (PLAS) configured to receive transaction identifying information and payment device identifying information from an issuer account server (IAS) in response to the payment device identifying information including a marker that indicates a Radio Frequency (RF) payment device is associated with the preloaded value data file, wherein the IAS is configured to receive a merchant transaction request that includes the transaction identifying information and the payment device identifying information, wherein the payment device identifying information is associated with the RF payment device, wherein the transaction identifying information includes a transaction value, wherein the PLAS is further configured to determine that the merchant transaction request complies with a risk criteria that includes a payment device usage history, and wherein the PLAS is configured to authorize the merchant transaction request in response to the determining that the merchant transaction request complies with the risk criteria, wherein the authorizing the merchant transaction request occurs prior to determining a value present in the preloaded value data file and prior to communicating with the issuer database;

wherein the PLAS is configured to assess the transaction value against the value present in the preloaded value data file in the issuer database subsequent to a communication device transmitting a transaction authorization to a merchant, wherein the communication device is configured to transmit the transaction authorization to the merchant in response to the PLAS authorizing the merchant transaction.

19. A method, comprising:

receiving, at an issuer account server (IAS), a merchant transaction request, wherein the merchant transaction request includes transaction identifying information and payment device identifying information, wherein the payment device identifying information is associated with a Radio Frequency (RF) payment device, and wherein the transaction identifying information includes a transaction value;

transmitting the transaction identifying information and the payment device identifying information from the IAS to a preloaded value authorization server (PLAS) in response to the payment device identifying information including a marker that indicates the RF payment device is associated with a preloaded value data file maintained in an issuer database, wherein the PLAS determines that the merchant transaction request complies with a risk criteria that includes a payment device usage history, wherein the PLAS authorizes the merchant transaction request in response to the determining that the merchant transaction request complies with the risk criteria, and wherein the authorizing the merchant transaction request occurs prior to determining a value present in the preloaded value data file and prior to communicating with the issuer database; and

transmitting a transaction authorization to a merchant in response to the authorizing the merchant transaction request, wherein, subsequent to the transmitting the transaction authorization to the merchant, the PLAS assesses the transaction value against the value present in the preloaded value data file in the issuer database.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the IAS provides the transaction authorization to the merchant based on evaluation of the risk criteria and not based upon the value present in the preloaded value data file.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising resetting an RF payment device counter value in response to the merchant transaction request.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the RF payment device counter value indicates a number of offline transactions conducted by the RF payment device.

23. An issuer system, comprising:

an issuer account server (IAS) configured to receive a merchant transaction request, wherein the merchant transaction request includes transaction identifying information and payment device identifying information, wherein the payment device identifying information is associated with an RF payment device, wherein the transaction identifying information includes a transaction value, wherein an issuer database is configured to maintain a preloaded value data file associated with the RF payment device, and wherein a preloaded value authorization server (PLAS) is configured to receive the transaction identifying information and the payment device identifying information from the IAS in response to the payment device identifying information including a marker that indicates the RF payment device is associated with the preloaded value data file; and

a communication device configured to transmit a transaction authorization to a merchant in response to the (PLAS) authorizing the merchant transaction request, wherein the PLAS is configured to determine that the merchant transaction request complies with a risk criteria that includes a payment device usage history, wherein the PLAS is configured to authorize the merchant transaction request in response to the determining that the merchant transaction request complies with the risk criteria, and wherein the authorizing the merchant transaction request occurs prior to determining a value present in the preloaded value data file and prior to communicating to the issuer database;

wherein the PLAS is further configured to assess the transaction value against the value present in the preloaded value data file in the issuer database subsequent to the communication device transmitting the transaction authorization to the merchant.