Method and user device for management of electronic receipts

• US 8,386,343 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2009
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• 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): Zare, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): Masud, Rokib
• Application Number:
  US12/359,248
• Publication Number:
  US 20090192925A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,495 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/14, 705/22, 705/26, 705/41, 705/54, 705/16, 707/10, 707/14, 709/201, 709/206, 709/217
• 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 user device for managing electronic receipts, comprising:

a processor configured to execute control logic configured to manage data representing at least one electronic receipt;

a communications module operatively coupled to the processor to electronically interface with a portable device of a user, wherein the portable device supplies the communications module with data representing the at least one electronic receipt of the user regarding a prior transaction, which originated the at least one electronic receipt, between the portable device and a POS device;

a display interface operatively coupled to the processor and configured by the processor to display to the user data representing the at least one electronic receipt while the portable device is interfacing with the communications module; and

a storage component operatively coupled to the processor and configured by the processor to store at least a portion of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt,

wherein the at least one electronic receipt comprises accounting information and administrative information, the administrative information comprising access and management conditions that are controlled by a service provider in control of the POS device,

wherein the communications module is further configured by the processor to retrieve information from the portable device in order to display viewable information of the at least one electronic receipt to the user on the display interface while the portable device is interfacing with the communications module, and

wherein the access and management conditions of the at least one electronic receipt allow the processor to copy the accounting information to the storage component and prevent the processor from copying the access and management conditions of the electronic receipt to the storage component,

wherein the access and management conditions of the at least one electronic receipt only allow the processor of the computing system to copy only a portion of the at least one electronic receipt, said portion including at least the accounting information.

2. The user device of claim 1, wherein the control logic is further configured to execute data duplicating, data parking, data exporting, data cancelling, and data restoring.

3. The user device of claim 2, wherein data duplicating comprises copying the data representing the at least one electronic receipt for storage in the storage component, and changing status information of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt to indicate the copied data representing the at least one electronic receipt is a copy.

4. The user device of claim 2, wherein data exporting comprises reproducing a portion of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt, and sending the portion of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt to an accounting application.

5. The user device of claim 2,

wherein data cancelling comprises altering a state code of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt so that the data representing the at least one electronic receipt may be overwritten.

6. The user device of claim 5, wherein the state code of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt is altered by a user of the user device.

7. The user device of claim 2,

wherein data restoring comprises sending a request to a server for authorization to restore lost data representing the at least one electronic receipt, and restoring the lost data representing the at least one electronic receipt after receiving authorization.

8. The user device of claim 1, wherein the computing system is configured to interact with a plurality of other portable devices and allow receipt management to be performed only with respect to the portable device.

9. The user device of claim 1, wherein the user device is portable.

10. The user device of claim 1, wherein the user device is a kiosk.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the limited information of the at least one electronic receipt does not comprise a valid copy of the at least one electronic receipt.

12. A method for managing an electronic receipt using a user device, the user device having control logic for managing data representing at least one electronic receipt using the user device, the method comprising:

requesting, using a processor, the data representing the at least one electronic receipt of the user regarding a prior transaction from a portable device coupled to a communications module of the user device, wherein the prior transaction, which originated the at least one electronic receipt, was between the portable device and a POS device, wherein the POS device originally supplied the at least one electronic receipt to the portable device;

receiving and storing, using the processor, at least a portion of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt in a storage component of the user device; and

displaying, using the processor, a displayable format of the at least one electronic receipt on a display interface of the user device,

wherein the at least one electronic receipt comprises accounting information and administrative information, the administrative information comprising access and management conditions that are controlled by a service provider in control of the POS device,

wherein the communications module is configured by the processor to retrieve information from the portable device in order to display viewable information of the at least one electronic receipt to the user on the display interface while the portable device is interfacing with the communications module, and

wherein the access and management conditions of the at least one electronic receipt allow the processor to copy the accounting information to the storage component and prevent the processor from copying the access and management conditions of the electronic receipt to the storage component of the user device,

wherein the access and management conditions of the at least one electronic receipt only allow the processor of the computing system to copy only a portion of the at least one electronic receipt, said portion including at least the accounting information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein storing the data representing the at least one electronic receipt comprises changing status information in the stored data representing the at least one electronic receipt on the storage component to indicate the stored data representing the at least one electronic receipt is a copy.

14. The method of claim 12, additionally comprising:

reproducing a portion of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt, and sending the portion of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt to an accounting application.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein reproducing the portion of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt comprises removing administrative information from the data representing the at least one electronic receipt.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the accounting application is located in and operated by the user device.

17. The method of claim 12, additionally comprising:

sending a request to a server for authorization to restore lost data representing the at least one electronic receipt, and restoring the lost data representing the at least one electronic receipt after receiving authorization.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the computing system is configured to interact with a plurality of other portable devices and allow receipt management to be performed only with respect to the portable device.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the user device is portable.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the user device is a kiosk.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the limited information of the at least one electronic receipt does not comprise a valid copy of the at least one electronic receipt.