Retail sales and dispensing fuel management system
First Claim
1. At a kiosk that is network connectable to a petroleum product management system, the kiosk controlling the dispensing of petroleum products at one or more petroleum product dispensers, a method for dispensing a petroleum product, the method comprising:
- an act of receiving account credentials corresponding to a petroleum purchasing account;
an act of submitting the account credentials to the petroleum product management system;
an act of receiving an account balance for the petroleum purchasing account from the petroleum product management system;
an act of configuring a petroleum product dispenser to dispense a petroleum product based on the account balance for the petroleum purchasing account being sufficient;
an act of receiving an indication of an amount of the petroleum product that was dispensed at the petroleum product dispenser;
an act of calculating the cost of the dispensed petroleum product; and
an act of sending a debit message to the petroleum product management system, the debit message indicating that the petroleum purchasing account is to be debited by the calculated cost.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention extends to managing the dispensing of petroleum products. A kiosk (e.g., at a gas station) and fuel management system are connected over a network. The fuel management system maintains balances for fuel purchasing accounts that can be debited to purchase fuel. To purchase fuel, a customer enters credentials identifying a fuel purchasing account at the kiosk. After fueling is complete, the fuel purchasing account is debited by the amount of the fuel purchase. Embodiments of the fuel system can also include networked (e.g., Internet) based payments into a fuel purchasing account, either from a kiosk or from a personal computer. Consumers can pay for increased amounts of fuel, such as, for example, multiple tanks of gasoline, in a single payment, potentially reducing or even eliminating returned check losses and/or card fees associated with “tank-at-a-time” purchases.
60 Citations
42 Claims
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1. At a kiosk that is network connectable to a petroleum product management system, the kiosk controlling the dispensing of petroleum products at one or more petroleum product dispensers, a method for dispensing a petroleum product, the method comprising:
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an act of receiving account credentials corresponding to a petroleum purchasing account;
an act of submitting the account credentials to the petroleum product management system;
an act of receiving an account balance for the petroleum purchasing account from the petroleum product management system;
an act of configuring a petroleum product dispenser to dispense a petroleum product based on the account balance for the petroleum purchasing account being sufficient;
an act of receiving an indication of an amount of the petroleum product that was dispensed at the petroleum product dispenser;
an act of calculating the cost of the dispensed petroleum product; and
an act of sending a debit message to the petroleum product management system, the debit message indicating that the petroleum purchasing account is to be debited by the calculated cost. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. At a petroleum product management system that is network connectable to one or more computer systems, the one or more computer systems including one or more kiosks, each kiosk controlling the dispensing of petroleum products at one or more petroleum product dispensers, a method for authorizing the dispensing of a petroleum product, the method comprising:
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an act of receiving account credentials from a kiosk, the account credentials being indicative of an attempt to purchase petroleum products against the balance of a petroleum account;
an act of identifying a corresponding petroleum account based on the received account credentials;
an act of accessing petroleum account information for the corresponding petroleum account from an account database;
an act of sending at least an account balance for the petroleum purchasing account to the kiosk;
an act of receiving a debit message from the kiosk, the debit message indicating that a specified amount in petroleum products were purchased against the balance of the of the petroleum purchasing account; and
an act of debiting the petroleum purchasing account by the specified amount in response to receiving the debit message. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A computer program product for use at a kiosk that is network connectable to a petroleum product management system, the kiosk controlling the dispensing of petroleum products at one or more petroleum product dispensers, the computer program product of implementing a method for dispensing a petroleum product, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media have stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the kiosk to perform the following:
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receive account credentials corresponding to a petroleum purchasing account;
submit the account credentials to the petroleum product management system;
receive an account balance for the petroleum purchasing account from the petroleum product management system;
configure a petroleum product dispenser to dispense a petroleum product based on the account balance for the petroleum purchasing account being sufficient;
receive an indication of an amount of the petroleum product that was dispensed at the petroleum product dispenser;
calculate the cost of the dispensed petroleum product; and
send a debit message to the petroleum product management system, the debit message indicating that the petroleum purchasing account is to be debited by the calculated cost. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A computer program product for use at a petroleum product management system that is network connectable to one or more computer systems, the one or more computer systems including one or more kiosks, each kiosk controlling the dispensing of petroleum products at one or more petroleum product dispensers, the computer program product for implementing a method for authorizing the dispensing of a petroleum product, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media have stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the petroleum product management system to perform the following:
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receive account credentials from a kiosk, the account credentials being indicative of an attempt to purchase petroleum products against the balance of a petroleum account;
identify a corresponding petroleum account based on the received account credentials;
access petroleum account information for the corresponding petroleum account from an account database;
send at least an account balance for the petroleum purchasing account to the kiosk;
receive a debit message from the kiosk, the debit message indicating that a specified amount in petroleum products were purchased against the balance of the petroleum purchasing account; and
debit the petroleum purchasing account by the specified amount in response to receiving the debit message. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification