Device, system, and method of electronic payment
Patent No. US9633344 (titled "Device, system, and method of electronic payment") on Mar 4, 2012. The application was issued on Apr 25, 2017.
What is this patent about?
’344 is related to the field of electronic payment systems, specifically those used in hospitality and retail environments like restaurants or bars. It addresses the common friction point where a patron must wait for a staff member to bring a physical bill, process a credit card, and return a receipt, which often leads to delays and a lack of consumer control over the checkout process.
The underlying idea behind ’344 is the creation of a temporary ad-hoc linkage between a consumer’s mobile device and a specific merchant point-of-sale (POS) terminal using a location-aware, time-sensitive unique code. By establishing this secure bridge through a central server, the system allows the consumer to bypass traditional staff-mediated payment steps, shifting the authority to close a transaction and authorize payment directly to the patron's smartphone.
The claims of ’344 focus on a coordinated system involving a smartphone application, a POS terminal application, and a central server that manages pre-authorized payment methods. The system uses GPS data to identify the merchant, generates a unique code specific to that customer-merchant pairing, and includes a specific mechanism for detecting and settling abandoned tabs if a customer leaves the premises without manually triggering the payment process.
In practice, the invention functions by having the server generate a short code once the smartphone confirms its location at the establishment. This code is shared with the merchant to link the digital profile to the physical table or order. The server also acts as an intelligence layer, utilizing a purchase history segment to analyze a customer's past behavior across different merchants, allowing the POS terminal to receive real-time recommendations for items the customer is likely to enjoy based on their global dining habits.
This approach differentiates itself from standard mobile wallets by integrating deeply with the merchant's live workflow and providing a safety net for the business. Unlike simple payment apps, the abandoned tab detector ensures the merchant is paid even if the customer forgets to close the transaction, while the cross-merchant data analysis provides a level of personalization that traditional siloed POS systems cannot achieve.
How does this patent fit in bigger picture?
Technical Landscape
In the early 2010s when ’344 was filed, electronic payment processing in hospitality environments was typically implemented using fixed point-of-sale terminals that required physical interaction between staff and patrons. At a time when transaction settlement commonly relied on the manual exchange of tangible payment instruments—such as magnetic stripe cards or cash—rather than decentralized mobile authorization, the synchronization of a customer's digital identity with a specific merchant billing record was restricted by the lack of direct integration between consumer hardware and backend restaurant management systems. Hardware and software constraints of the era made the real-time, autonomous reconciliation of a dynamic purchase tab non-trivial, as existing architectures generally required a staff member to act as a gatekeeper to initiate, modify, and close the billing cycle through a proprietary local interface.
Prosecution Position
The disclosed invention addresses the technical problem of latency and staff dependency in traditional payment workflows by introducing a server-mediated association architecture. This system achieves a technical advancement through the generation of a unique, temporary code that bridges a consumer's portable electronic device with a specific purchase tab hosted on a merchant's point-of-sale terminal. By shifting the control logic for transaction finalization from the merchant terminal to the consumer's device via a remote associator module, the architecture enables autonomous tab closure and electronic payment without requiring physical proximity to staff or the exchange of tangible instruments. This integration overcomes the constraint of synchronous staff-patron interaction, allowing for the independent resolution of financial obligations through a secure, temporary link between disparate hardware environments.
Claims
The patent contains a total of 13 claims, with claim 1 being the only independent claim. This independent claim focuses on a comprehensive system for managing customer tabs at business establishments, utilizing smartphone GPS data to identify locations, generating unique codes for tab association, and employing a server to facilitate automated payments and item recommendations based on purchase history. The dependent claims serve to elaborate on specific system functionalities, such as detailed electronic payment execution, promotional messaging, scanning hardware, split-billing capabilities between multiple customers, and privacy-focused payment processing that bypasses local business receivers.
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US9633344
- Application Number
- US13411570A
- Filing Date
- Mar 4, 2012
- Publication Date
- Apr 25, 2017
- External Links
- Slate, USPTO , Google Patents