Multiple merchants in cardless payment transactions and multiple customers in cardless payment transactions

• US 9,648,451 B1
• Filed: 09/19/2014
• Issued: 05/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Bob
• Primary Examiner(s): Afshar, Kamran
• Assistant Examiner(s): Madani, Farideh
• Application Number:
  US14/491,774
• Time in Patent Office: 963 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/352 Contactless payments by cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A method includes receiving a request for a list of nearby user devices, where the list of nearby user devices will be sent to a merchant device, where the merchant device is associated with a merchant, where the merchant operates a plurality of merchant devices, and where the merchant device is included in the plurality of merchant devices; receiving a respective location for one or more user devices, where each user device is associated with the merchant; determining, for each of the one or more user devices, whether the user device is nearby the merchant device, based on the respective location, to the merchant device than the other merchant devices in the plurality of merchant devices; generating the list of nearby user devices based at least on the determination; and sending the list of nearby user devices to the merchant device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, from a user device, a request for information about nearby merchants that perform cardless payment transactions, wherein a nearby merchant is a merchant having at least one merchant device that is within a threshold distance to the user device, and wherein the request includes a location of the user device;

identifying a plurality of merchant devices that are located within the threshold distance to the location of the user device, at least a first merchant device and a second merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices being associated with a particular merchant;

determining that the particular merchant is associated with the first merchant device and the second merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices that are located within the threshold distance of the location of the user device;

generating a merchant entry for the particular merchant, the merchant entry representing the first merchant device and the second merchant device that are within the threshold distance of the location of the user device;

generating a presentation of a plurality of merchant entries representing nearby merchant devices, the presentation including the merchant entry;

providing the presentation for display by the user device in response to the request for information about nearby merchants that perform cardless payment transactions; and

receiving, from the user device, an indication of consent to perform a cardless payment transaction with the particular merchant.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication of consent comprises receiving, from the user device, an indication of customer consent for the particular merchant to perform the cardless payment transaction using the first merchant device represented by the merchant entry, the first merchant device being closer to the user device than the second merchant device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication comprises receiving, from the user device, an indication of customer consent for the particular merchant to perform the cardless payment transaction using a primary sales device of the particular merchant, the primary sales device being the first merchant device represented by the merchant entry.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying that the first merchant device is closer to the user device than the second merchant device; and

selecting the first merchant device for performing the cardless payment transaction.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying that the first merchant device includes a primary merchant device associated with the particular merchant; and

selecting the first merchant device for performing the cardless payment transaction.

6. A method comprising:

receiving, from a user device, a request for information about nearby merchants that perform cardless payment transactions;

identifying a plurality of merchant devices that are located within a threshold distance to a location of the user device, at least a first merchant device and a second merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices being associated with a particular merchant;

determining that the particular merchant is associated with the first merchant device and the second merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices that are located within the threshold distance to the location of the user device;

generating a presentation of nearby merchants for display at the user device, the presentation including a single merchant entry representing the first merchant device and the second merchant device;

providing, to the user device, the presentation of nearby merchants for display at the user device; and

receiving, from the user device, an indication of consent to perform a cardless payment transaction with the particular merchant.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving the indication of consent comprises receiving, by a payment service system, and from the user device, an indication of customer consent for the particular merchant to perform the cardless payment transaction using the first merchant device represented by the single merchant entry, wherein the first merchant device is closer to the user device than the second merchant device.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving the indication of consent comprise receiving, by a payment service system, and from the user device, an indication of customer consent for the particular merchant to perform the cardless payment transaction using a primary sales device of the particular merchant, the primary sales device being the first merchant device represented by the single merchant entry.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the presentation comprises generating a second merchant entry for at least one merchant device that is not located within the threshold distance to the location of the user device.

10. A system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a user device, a request for information about nearby merchants that perform cardless payment transactions;

identifying a plurality of merchant devices that are located within a threshold distance to a location of the user device, at least a first merchant device and a second merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices being associated with a particular merchant;

determining that the particular merchant is associated with the first merchant device and the second merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices that are located within the threshold distance to the location of the user device;

generating a merchant entry for the particular merchant, the merchant entry representing the first merchant device and the second merchant device that are located within the threshold distance of the location of the user device;

generating a presentation of nearby merchants for display at the user device, the presentation including the merchant entry;

providing, to the user device, the presentation of nearby merchants for display at the user device; and

receiving, from the user device, an indication of consent to perform a cardless payment transaction with the particular merchant.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein receiving the indication comprises receiving, by a payment service system, and from the user device, an indication of customer consent for the particular merchant to perform the cardless payment transaction using the first merchant device represented by the merchant entry, wherein the first merchant device is closer to the user device than the second merchant device.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein receiving the indication comprises receiving, by a payment service system, and from the user device, an indication of customer consent for the particular merchant to perform the cardless payment transaction using a primary sales device of the particular merchant, the primary sales device being the first merchant device represented by the merchant entry.

13. The system of claim 10, the operations further comprising generating a second merchant entry for at least one merchant device that is not located within the threshold distance to the location of the user device, and wherein the presentation of nearby merchants further includes the second merchant entry.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying that the first merchant device is closer to the user device than the second merchant device; and

selecting the first merchant device for performing the cardless payment transaction.

15. A computer program product, encoded on one or more non-transitory computer storage media, comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a user device, a request for information about nearby merchants that perform cardless payment transactions;

identifying a plurality of merchant devices that are located within a threshold distance to a location of the user device, at least a first merchant device and a second merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices being associated with a particular merchant;

determining that the particular merchant is associated with the first merchant device and the second merchant device of the plurality of merchant devices that are located within the threshold distance to the location of the user device;

generating a presentation of nearby merchants for display at the user device, the presentation including a single merchant entry representing the first merchant device and the second merchant device;

providing, to the user device, the presentation of nearby merchants for display at the user device; and

receiving, from the user device, an indication of consent to perform a cardless payment transaction with the particular merchant.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein receiving the indication of consent comprises receiving, by a payment service system, and from the user device, an indication of customer consent for the particular merchant to perform the cardless payment transaction using the first merchant device represented by the single merchant entry, wherein the first merchant device is closer to the user device than the second merchant device.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein receiving the indication of consent comprises receiving, by a payment service system, and from the user device, an indication of customer consent for the particular merchant to perform the cardless payment transaction using a primary sales device of the particular merchant, the primary sales device being the first merchant device represented by the single merchant entry.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein generating the presentation comprises generating a second merchant entry for at least one merchant device that is not located within the threshold distance to the location of the user device.