Patent News - InComm and Stored Value Cards
Announcement by InComm that it has received notice of allowance for patent for prepaid or stored value card redemption via point-of-sale. Fairly vague but appears that some unique identifiers which are printed or encoded in magstripe ensure accuracy. Printing and magstripe may be cost-effective now but at some point they will go away?
InComm Secures New Patent
Covers System and Method for Stored Value Card Authorization
ATLANTA, GA (July 20, 2009) InComm, a provider of prepaid transaction processing and electronic point-of-sale (POS) distribution solutions, has received a notice of allowance from the US Patent and Trademark Office for its newest operational patent. The InComm team received notice on July 9, 2009 that their patent for the System and Method For Authorizing Stored Value Card Transactions had been issued. This patent is the newest addition to a suite of 24 U.S. patents and 34 international patents that define the retail process for the prepaid industry, and is the culmination of InComm's patent protection efforts in the POSA arena over the past 10 years.
InComm's latest patent protects a computer-implemented method for point-of-sale activation, deactivation and redemption of prepaid or stored value cards via point-of-sale terminals and applies to all types of prepaid cards, including wireless, 3rd party gift, open loop stored value, music, gaming, content and more. Additionally, InComm says its patented system ensures accurate processing and authorization of all prepaid point-of-sale transaction types by utilizing unique identification numbers that may be printed and/or magnetically encoded on the card.
"This latest patent reinforces our commitment to the industry, to our retail partners and to consumers," said Smith. "This process protects the InComm retail partner business model and allows InComm to provide a secure, cost-effective supply of products while allowing retailers an unparalleled opportunity to offer these products to their consumers. This is the evolution of the marketplace using technology that permits secure merchandising of stored-value products."
There are a wide variety of prepaid services that are and continue to be accommodated by prepaid and stored value cards. The most common include wireless, 3rd party gift, open loop stored value and content programs.
Source: InComm (www.incomm.com)
Posted by staff at July 28, 2009 07:04 AM