Mobile group payments

• US 8,401,968 B1
• Filed: 03/27/2008
• Issued: 03/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Schattauer, Paul C., Yuen, Gerald, Yuen, Philip, Gupta, Diwakar
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TIEN C
• Application Number:
  US12/056,513
• Time in Patent Office: 1,818 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/34, 705/37, 705/30, 705/45, 726/27, 713/193, 235/380
• US Class Current: 705/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3255 using mobile network messaging services for payment, e.g. SMS
• 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 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A mobile group payment service enables members of a group to access a group account. The group account may enable members to transmit funds, request funds, and perform account queries, and modify account settings, among other possible operations. A member may request a payment from the group account to a target account. A transaction authorization service may facilitate an authorization process to determine whether the requested payment is authorized by one or more of the other members of the group. Upon authorization, the requested payment may be completed by transferring funds to the target account.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of transacting a payment, the method comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

associating a group of members with a group account of a transaction authorization service;

receiving a payment request from a mobile device associated with a requesting member, the payment request initiating a payment from the group account and an entity account designated by the requesting member, the payment request transmitted via a first simple message system (SMS) text message;

selecting at least one authorizing member from the members of the group, the at least one authorizing member being different than the requesting member and being selected based at least in part on a determination that the at least one authorizing member is not a beneficiary of the payment and further based at least in part on one or more attributes associated with the at least one authorizing member that indicate an authority to authorize the payment request;

sending an authorization request for the payment to a mobile device associated with the at least one authorizing member, the authorization request transmitted via a second SMS text message; and

receiving a third SMS text message as an authorization message from the at least one authorizing member in response to the authorization request, the authorization message either permitting the payment or denying the payment between the group account and the entity account.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a request for a deposit of funds into the group account by the members in response to the receiving a payment request;

receiving the deposit of funds from one or more of the group of members prior to executing the payment to the entity account and at least partly in response to the payment request; and

executing the payment to the entity account.

3. A method comprising:

associating, via a server, a group of members with a group account of a transaction authorization service;

receiving, at the server, a payment request from a requesting member, the payment request initiating a transaction between the group account and an entity account;

transmitting a request for a deposit of funds into the group account by the members at least partly in response to the receiving a payment request;

selecting two or more of the members as authorizing members of the group;

sending, via a server, an authorization request for the transaction to destinations associated with the authorizing members of the group;

receiving authorization messages from the authorizing members prior to an expiration of a response time, each of the authorization messages either authorizing or denying the payment request, and the response time being predetermined based at least partly on a type of the transaction; and

issuing a payment associated with the payment request upon receipt of a threshold amount or percentage of authorization messages that authorize the payment request.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein associating the group of members with the group account includes:

registering an owner of the group associated with the account, the owner being one of the members; and

registering at least a second member of the group based on at least one attribute determined by the owner.

5. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein selecting the two or more of the members as the authorizing members of the group includes retrieving an attribute for each of the two or more members that determines an eligibility to participate in a vote to authorize or deny the payment request.

6. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprising facilitating a monetary deposit into the group account by at least one of the members of the group.

7. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein receiving a payment request from a requesting member includes receiving a simple message system (SMS) text message.

8. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the at least an authorizing member is a member other than the requesting member.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising sending the authorization request to two or more authorizing members, wherein authorization of the transaction is based upon a tally of authorization messages returned by the two or more authorizing members.

10. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprising:

receiving a deposit from at least one of the members;

determining whether the deposit is for an amount of the request; and

transmitting a message to the respective member when the deposit is not the amount of the request based at least in part on the determining.

11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

receiving a payment request by a requesting member of a group of members, the group of members being associated with a group account;

randomly designating at least two or more of the members of the group as authorizing members;

transmitting an authorization request to the authorizing members, the authorization request set to expire after a response time that is predetermined based at least in part on a type of the authorization request; and

at a time after receiving an authorization approval from the authorizing members and at least partly in response to the receiving the payment request, allocating funds of the group account according to the payment request received from the requesting member.

12. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein receiving a payment request by a requesting member includes receiving the request by at least one of a voice activated communication or a SMS text message command.

13. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, further comprising designating the requesting member as ineligible to be one of the authorizing members.

14. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, further comprising requesting a deposit of funds from at least a portion of the group, the requested deposit communicated to the members via a SMS text message.

15. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein an authorization approval is determined as a function of one or more member votes from the authorization members.

16. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 15, wherein the authorization approval is determined when the one or more member votes exceed a predetermined threshold value, the value including a number or a percentage.

17. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory comprising program instructions that are executable by the processor to implement a group transaction authorization service configured to;

receive a payment request from a transaction initiator of a group of members associated with a group account, the payment request being a request to transmit funds from the group account to an entity account specified by the transaction initiator;

determine whether the payment request is greater than a balance of available funds in the group account;

transmit a request to the members for a deposit of funds into the group account at least partly in response to receipt of the payment request when the balance of the group account is less than the funds in the payment request based at least in part on the determining;

transmit an authorization request to at least one member of the group other than the transaction initiator based at least in part on a determination that the at least one member is not a beneficiary of the requested transaction, the authorization request transmitted to a communication device associated with the at least one member; and

receive a vote at least partly in response to the authorization request, the vote facilitating a determination as to whether the requested transaction is authorized.

18. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein the payment request is authorized when a plurality of votes reaches a predetermined vote quantity threshold.

19. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein the payment request is authorized when a predetermined vote percentage threshold is obtained from the response message associated with the authorization request.

20. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein at least one member has two voting options that the at least one member may select from when voting, the at least two voting options including a standard vote that is tallied with other votes and an absolute rejection vote, and wherein a receipt of the absolute rejection vote from the authorization request results in the requested transaction being denied regardless of the other votes.

21. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein the at least one member of the group includes at least two members, and wherein the at least two members are chosen randomly from a selected group of eligible authorization members.

22. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein the group transaction service is further configured to:

monitor for a response associated with the authorization request, and

cancel the authorization request when the response is not received prior to expiration of a predetermined duration of time allocated for the response to the authorization request.

23. The system as recited in claim 22, wherein the group transaction service is further configured to transmit an additional authorization request to at least one other member of the group other than the transaction initiator at least partly in response to a cancelation of the authorization request, the additional authorization transmitted to a communication device associated with the at least one other member of the group.

24. The system as recited in claim 22, where the predetermined duration of time is based at least in part on a transaction type which is selected from a short duration associated with a purchase that is at a point of sale or a long duration associated with a purchase that is not at a point of sale.

25. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein the group transaction service is further configured to notify the transaction initiator when the deposit of funds into the group account are fulfilled by deposits from the members.