Processing payment transactions without a secure element

• US 9,984,360 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2015
• Issued: 05/29/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Jooste, Sarel Kobus
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayles, Ashford S
• Application Number:
  US14/918,536
• Publication Number:
  US 20160042338A1
• Time in Patent Office: 952 Days
• Field of Search: 705 21
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/363 with the personal data of a user
• 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

Abstract

A user conducts a wireless payment transaction with a merchant system by transmitting payment information from a user device to a terminal reader without accessing a secure element resident on the user device. A user taps a user device in a merchant system'"'"'s terminal reader'"'"'s radio frequency field. The terminal reader and the user device establish a communication channel and the terminal reader transmits a signal comprising a request for a payment processing response. The signal is received by the user device and converted by a controller to a request understandable by an application host processor. The controller transmits the request to the application host processor, where the request is processed, and a response is transmitted to the controller and then to the terminal reader. The response generated by the application host processor is identifiable by the merchant system as a payment response.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to process payment transactions without accessing secure memories, comprising:

receiving, by a mobile computing device and from a merchant system computing device, a request for payment account information to process a payment transaction;

processing, by the mobile computing device, the request for the payment account information by converting the request for the payment account information to a request understandable by a non-secure memory processor, wherein the non-secure memory processor permits processing of the payment transactions using financial account information for any of a plurality of payment providers;

generating, by the non-secure memory processor of the mobile computing device, a response to the request for the payment account information that is indistinguishable from a response generated by a secure memory processor, the response comprising a payment account identifier, wherein generating the response by the non-secure memory processor allows the mobile computing device to process payment transactions using financial account information for any of the plurality of payment providers; and

transmitting, by the mobile computing device, the response to the request for the payment account information to the merchant system computing device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the payment account identifier is generated by the mobile computing device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the payment account identifier is generated by an account management system and transmitted to the mobile computing device, wherein the account management system maintains an account comprising information for at least one of a credit card account, debit account, stored value account, gift card account, and bank account for a user associated with the mobile computing device.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the payment account identifier is valid for a limited number of uses.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the payment account identifier is associated with at least one of a geographic limitation and a time limitation.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the payment account identifier comprises one of a credit card account, debit account, stored value account, gift card account, and bank account number.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the payment account identifier is retrieved from a digital wallet application on the mobile computing device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request for a payment processing response is received using a near field communication (NFC) protocol.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising communicating, by the mobile computing device, the payment account identifier to an account management system for payment account identifier verification during processing of a payment request.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the non-secure memory processor resident on the mobile computing device generates the payment account number using a scheme that can be replicated by an account management system during processing of a payment request.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device converts the request for payment account information received from the merchant computing device into bytes comprising a request understandable by the non-secure memory processor.

11. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable program instructions embodied thereon that when executed by a mobile computing device cause the mobile computing device to process payment transactions without accessing secure memories, the computer-readable program instructions comprising;

computer-readable program instructions to receive from a merchant computing device, a request for payment account information to process a payment transaction;

computer-readable program instructions to process the request for the payment account information by converting the request for the payment account information to a request understandable by a non-secure memory processor, wherein the non-secure memory processor permits processing of the payment transactions using financial account information for any of a plurality of payment providers;

computer-readable program instructions to generate a response to the request for the payment account information that is indistinguishable from a response generated by a secure memory processor, the response comprising a payment account identifier; and

computer-readable program instructions to transmit the response to the request for the payment account information to the merchant computing device.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the payment account identifier comprises a proxy account number generated by the mobile computing device.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the payment account identifier comprises a proxy account number generated by an account management system and transmitted to the mobile computing device, wherein the account management system maintains an account comprising information for one of a credit card account, debit account, stored value account, gift card account, and bank account number for a user associated with the mobile computing device.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the payment account identifier comprises a proxy account number that is valid for a limited number of uses.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the payment account identifier comprises a proxy account number that is associated with at least one of a geographic limitation and a time limitation.

17. A mobile computing device for processing payment transactions, comprising:

a storage device;

a controller communicatively coupled to the storage device; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the storage device and the controller,

the controller of the mobile computing device executing application code instructions that are stored in the storage device to cause the mobile computing device to;

receive a request for payment account information to process a payment transaction from a merchant system computing device; and

process the request for the payment account information by converting the request for the payment account information to a request understandable by the processor, wherein the processor allows the mobile computing device to process payment transactions using financial account information for any of the plurality of payment providers; and

the processor of the mobile computing device executing application code instructions that are stored in the storage device to cause the mobile computing device to;

generate a response to the request for the payment account information that is indistinguishable from a response generated by a secure element processor, the response comprising a payment account identifier, wherein generating the response by the processor allows the mobile computing device to process payment transactions using financial account information for any of a plurality of payment providers.

18. The mobile computing device of claim 17, wherein the payment account identifier is generated by a non secure memory processor.

19. The mobile computing device of claim 17, wherein the payment account identifier is retrieved from a digital wallet application on the mobile computing device.

20. The mobile computing device of claim 17, wherein the processor of the mobile computing device is further configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in the storage device to cause the mobile computing device to generate the payment account identifier using a scheme that can be replicated by an account management system during processing of a payment request.

21. The mobile computing device of claim 17, wherein the payment account identifier is generated by an account management system and transmitted to the mobile computing device, and the account management system maintains an account comprising information for at least one of a credit card account, debit account, stored value account, gift card account, and bank account for a user associated with the mobile computing device.

22. The mobile computing device of claim 17, wherein the payment account identifier is valid for a limited number of uses.

23. The mobile computing device of claim 17, wherein the payment account identifier is associated with at least one of a geographic limitation and a time limitation.

24. The mobile computing device of claim 17, wherein the processor of the mobile computing device is further configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in the storage device to cause the mobile computing device to communicate the payment account identifier to an account management system for payment account identifier verification, the communication to the account management system comprising the response to the request for the payment account information transmitted by the mobile computing device to the merchant computing device.

25. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor of the mobile computing device generates the payment account identifier using a scheme that can be replicated by an account management system during processing of a payment request.

26. The mobile computing device of claim 17, wherein the controller comprises a near field communication controller.

27. The mobile computing device of claim 17, wherein the controller comprises a Bluetooth controller.

28. The mobile computing device of claim 17, wherein storage device comprises a secure memory other than a secure element memory.

29. The mobile computing device of claim 17, wherein storage device comprises a combination memory with secure memory and non-secure memory portions.