Mobile Payment Station System and Method

• US 20110093351A1
• Filed: 10/18/2010
• Published: 04/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mobile Equity Corp. (d/b/a QRUZ)
• Original Assignee: Faber Financial LLC
• Inventors: Afana, Marwan Monir
• Granted Patent: US 8,589,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3223 Realising banking transactions through M-devices
• 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 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A mobile device is used to initiate and execute a transaction between a customer and a merchant. A mobile device is used to initiate a point of sale transaction, wherein a merchant ID is sent to a payment processing server. Responsive to receiving a communication from the mobile device, the payment processing server requests transaction information from the merchant, wherein the merchant is identified based on the provided merchant ID. The merchant can provide transaction information such as the total sale amount to the payment processing server. The payment processing server can authenticate the customer and initiate a purchase transaction with the appropriate financial institutions associated with the customer and the merchant. The payment processing server can send a confirmation of the executed transaction to the merchant and the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method for conducting a transaction between a merchant and a customer using a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving a merchant identification from the computing device, ;

sending a transaction information request to a merchant associated with the merchant identification;

receiving transaction information from the merchant, the transaction information including the transaction amount;

authenticating the computing device and the merchant information;

identifying a purchase account associated with the customer and a deposit account associated with the merchant; and

initiating the transaction between the merchant and the customer for the transaction amount.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant identification comprises a unique identifier associated with a merchant or a unique identifier associated with a merchant'"'"'s point-of-sale terminal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the merchant identification is received from the computing device by at least one of communication messages an SMS message, an MMS message, an email message or a phone call.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the merchant identification comprises of a number associated with the unique merchant identifier, the number being input on a computing device by a customer, received from a point-of-sale terminal associated with the merchant, or interpreted by an application executing on the computing device based on depiction of merchant identification.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction information request is sent to a point-of-sale terminal associated with the merchant.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a phone number associated with the computing device is authenticated on an operator network associated with the computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending an authorization request to the mobile device; and

receiving a correct authorization from the mobile device, the authorization comprising a pre-set personal identification number.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a customer can provide a pre-set personal identification number corresponding to one or more purchasing criteria including, merchant type or purchase amount.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a purchase account associated with a customer is identified responsive to the phone number associated with the communications device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the purchase account is identified responsive to pre-set criteria associated with the communications device'"'"'s phone number including merchant type or purchase amount.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the purchase account is identified responsive to an account phone number communicated by the communications device, wherein the communication device'"'"'s phone number is different from the account phone number.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating a transaction between the merchant and the customer comprises sending instructions to an appropriate financial institutions associated with the purchase account and the deposit account.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a mobile enablement center is used to identify an appropriate payment processing server associated with a financial institution.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein a service data point is used to initiate a transaction between the merchant and the customer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the service data point is identified by a register of service data points responsive to a query to execute a transaction between the customer and the merchant.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the point of sale terminal is enabled to receive a request for transaction information responsive to a firmware update.