Method and administration system for management of electronic receipts

• US 9,087,426 B2
• Filed: 01/26/2009
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• 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): Glass, Shay S
• Application Number:
  US12/359,896
• Publication Number:
  US 20090216664A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,367 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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. An electronic receipt administration system for managing electronic receipts, comprising:

means for registering a base device and generating, by the electronic receipt administration system, a unique base device identifier to identify the base device configured to store and generate data representing at least one electronic receipt, the base device further configured to interact with a portable device to generate an electronic receipt for a transaction, and to receive consumer account information from the portable device and transaction information from a service provider associated with the base device to generate the electronic receipt for the transaction;

means for connecting to the base device and loading an electronic receipt generation and management policy to the base device to allow the base device to generate and manage electronic receipts;

means for receiving the data representing the at least one electronic receipt from the base device; and

means for storing the data representing the at least one electronic receipt received from the base device;

wherein the base device is a point-of-sale device that implements the electronic receipt generation and management policy to generate the at least one electronic receipt in an off-line manner, such that the base device is not on-line with the electronic receipt system when creating the at least one electronic receipt.

2. The electronic receipt administration system of claim 1, wherein the electronic receipt generation and management policy provides a validity period policy, retrieval condition policy, security requirements policy, storage capacity policy, and an exception handling policy.

3. The electronic receipt administration system of claim 1, wherein the means for registering the base device comprises control logic configured to generate and manage keys and security attributes.

4. The electronic receipt administration system of claim 1, further comprising means for validating the integrity of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt.

5. The electronic receipt administration system of claim 1, further comprising means for duplicating the data representing the at least one electronic receipt.

6. The electronic receipt administration system of claim 1, further comprising means for aggregating information from the at least one electronic receipt provided by the base device.

7. The electronic receipt administration system of claim 6, further comprising means for responding to a query from the base device regarding the aggregated information.

8. The electronic receipt administration system of claim 7, further comprising means for receiving a receipt proofing request, and comparing the data representing the at least one electronic receipt with a duplicate of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt in the aggregated information.

9. The electronic receipt administration system of claim 7, further comprising means for receiving a restoration request of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt, and retrieving a backup copy of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt from the aggregated information.

10. A method for administering an electronic receipt administration system for managing electronic receipts, comprising:

registering a base device and generating, by the electronic receipt administration system, a unique base device identifier to identify the base device configured to store and generate data representing at least one electronic receipt, the base device further configured to interact with a portable device to generate an electronic receipt for a transaction, and to receive consumer account information from the portable device and transaction information from a service provider associated with the base device to generate the electronic receipt for the transaction;

connecting to the base device using the electronic receipt administration system and loading an electronic receipt generation and management policy to the base device to allow the base device to generate and manage electronic receipts;

receiving by the electronic receipt administration system, the data representing the at least one electronic receipt from the base device; and

storing at the electronic receipt administration system, the data representing the at least one electronic receipt received from the base device;

wherein the base device is a point-of-sale device that implements the electronic receipt generation and management policy to generate the at least one electronic receipt in an off-line manner, such that the base device is not on-line with the electronic receipt system when creating the at least one electronic receipt.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the electronic receipt generation and management policy comprises a validity period policy, retrieval condition policy, security requirements policy, storage capacity policy, and an exception handling policy.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein registering the base device comprises generating and managing keys and security attributes.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein registering the base device comprises validating the integrity of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein registering the base device comprises duplicating the data representing the at least one electronic receipt.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising aggregating information from the at least one electronic receipt provided by the base device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising responding to a query from the base device regarding the aggregated information.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving a receipt proofing request, and comparing the data representing the at least one electronic receipt with a duplicate of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt in the aggregated information.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving a restoration request of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt, and retrieving of a backup copy of the data representing the at least one electronic receipt from the aggregated information.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the electronic receipt administration system is configured to analyze performance of the base device.

21. The method of claim 10, wherein the unique base device identifier for identification of the base device includes a location identifier that is used to identify the location of the base device.

22. The method of claim 10, wherein the unique base device identifier is used to authenticate the base device and to allow access to electronic receipts associated with the base device that are stored on the portable device.

23. The method of claim 10, wherein the electronic receipt includes a receipt status including one of original, duplicated, invalid, and deleted.

24. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving an activity log of receipt generation from the base device.

25. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

connecting to the base device; and

loading changes to the receipt management policy to the base device.

20. An electronic receipt administration system for managing electronic receipts, comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium having code embodied thereon, the code being configured to cause the processor to perform a method comprising;

registering a base device and generating a unique base device identifier to identify the base device configured to store and generate data representing at least one electronic receipt, the base device further configured to interact with a portable device to generate an electronic receipt for a transaction, and to receive consumer account information from the portable device and transaction information from a service provider associated with the base device to generate the electronic receipt for the transaction;

connecting to the base device and loading an electronic receipt generation and management policy to the base device to allow the base device to generate and manage electronic receipts;

receiving the data representing the at least one electronic receipt from the base device; and

storing the data representing the at least one electronic receipt received from the base device;

wherein the base device is a point-of-sale device that implements the electronic receipt generation and management policy to generate the at least one electronic receipt in an off-line manner, such that the base device is not on-line with the electronic receipt system when creating the at least one electronic receipt.