AU2001100038A4 - A reward system - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION INNOVATION PATENT Applicant: EDWARD J KNIGHT Invention Title: A REWARDS SYSTEM The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us: 2 A REWARDS SYSTEM Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rewards system for rewarding a purchasers loyalty to a seller and thereby encouraging the purchaser to return and repurchase from the seller.

Background of the Invention Rewards systems for encouraging repeat purchases have a long commercial history and vary in complexity from the offer of a discount to sophisticated points-based systems.

The purpose of all such rewards systems is to provide the purchasers with an incentive to purchase goods and/or services from a particular seller by providing the purchasers with a reward each time the purchasers purchase goods and/or services from the seller.

Generally, such points-based rewards systems operate by providing purchasers registered with the system with a card which serves to identify the purchaser and thereby identify the account to which points are to be allocated as a result of a purchase. The purchasers receive, in general by mail, information which identifies the items and/or services available to the purchasers together with an indication as to the number of points required to claim the item and/or service.

Instead of offering items and/or services to the purchasers, some rewards systems offer vouchers for use with specific stores and/or shopping centres.

However, a disadvantage of points-based rewards systems known hitherto is that it is necessary for purchasers to redeem rewards by applying for the desired item or service in advance, generally in writing. This is cumbersome and time consuming for the purchasers.

The systems are also of limited appeal to purchasers 3 because only a preset range of items and/or services which have been selected by operators of the systems are available to the purchasers.

The systems also suffer from relatively large administration costs because they carry out periodic mailing to members of printed points statements and catalogues of the available items and/or services.

In this specification, it will be understood that the following terms have the meanings respectively set out after them and shall be construed in accordance with those meanings.

"Product" "Member" "Seller" Product is used in a broad sense to mean product or service including professional advice provided to a member of the rewards system.

A member is a person who has chosen to become associated with the rewards system and is entitled to receive rewards for purchases made by the member from any seller associated with the rewards system.

A seller is a merchant, retailer, wholesaler, service provider or professional practitioner associated with the rewards system and entitled to provide members with rewards as a result of purchase of a product, and to redeem rewards selected for use by a member during purchase of a product.

The terms "reward" and "rewards" are used to mean points, financial amounts or any other commodity which corresponds to a financial amount and which is received by a purchaser as a consequence of an act of purchasing a "Rewards" 4 product.

"Point" A point is a reward which is received by a purchaser as a consequence of an act of purchasing a product and corresponds to a specific financial amount.

"EFT" The term EFT refers to "electronic funds transfer".

"POS" The term POS refers to "point of sale".

"EFTPOS" The term EFTPOS refers to "electronic funds transfer at point of sale".

"PCPOS" The term PCPOS refers to "personal computer point of sale".

Summary of the Invention The system in accordance with the present invention makes it possible to open up to a purchaser an unlimited, freely available choice of reward products on which to expend rewards points, whilst at the same time eliminating the need for catalogues, rewards statements, inventories of merchandise, storage, administration and appropriate facilities. This allows the system to lower costs to participating sellers and increase the value of rewards to purchasers. Information of account balances and items of transaction statements are also made available in a userfriendly format with accurate accountability.

In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a rewards system for rewarding purchaser loyalty, said system including: at least one point of sale terminal for receiving information indicative of an offered rewards amount offered for purchase of a product and for receiving 5 information indicative of a selected rewards amount selected by a user for redemption; communications means for facilitating communications between the at least one point of sale terminal, a rewards financial account associated with the rewards system, and at least one seller financial account associated with a seller; and a plurality of user accounts, each user account being associated with a purchaser; said system being arranged, during a rewards receiving operation, to transfer a financial amount corresponding to an offered rewards amount received by the at least one point of sale terminal to said rewards financial account when said product is purchased by a purchaser, and to associate said transferred financial amount with the purchaser; each user account including a rewards balance amount indicative of the balance of financial amounts transferred to and from said rewards financial account and associated with the purchaser; and said system being arranged, during a rewards redeeming operation, to transfer at least a proportion of the respective cumulative financial amount associated with a purchaser and corresponding to a selected rewards amount received by the at least one point of sale terminal from the rewards financial account to a seller financial account associated with a seller of a product when the product is purchased from the seller by the purchaser.

In one embodiment, the system is arranged, during a rewards receiving operation, to transfer said financial amount corresponding to the offered rewards amount from a financial account of the seller of the product to said rewards financial account.

In an alternate embodiment, the system is arranged, during a rewards receiving operation, to transfer said financial amount corresponding to the offered rewards amount from a financial account of a purchaser of the 6 product to said rewards financial account.

Preferably, each said rewards balance amount is in the form of points, each point representing a predetermined financial amount.

Preferably, the rewards system is arranged, during a rewards receiving operation, to calculate the appropriate financial amount corresponding to the offered rewards amount, and to transfer the appropriate financial amount to said rewards financial account.

Preferably, the rewards system is arranged, during a rewards redeeming operation, to calculate the appropriate financial amount corresponding to the selected rewards amount, and to transfer the appropriate financial amount from the rewards financial account to the seller financial account.

The rewards system is preferably arranged to deduct from the rewards balance amount associated with a purchaser, a rewards amount corresponding to the financial amount transferred from the rewards financial account to the seller financial account as a result of purchasing a product by the purchaser during a rewards redeeming operation.

Preferably, the at least one terminal is also arranged to receive purchaser identification information indicative of the identity of a purchaser, the user accounts are arranged to store purchaser identification information, and the rewards system is arranged to compare the received purchaser identification information with the stored purchaser identification information. Preferably, the at least one terminal is also arranged to receive a PIN number, the user accounts are arranged to store PIN numbers and associate each PIN number with a user account, and the rewards system is arranged to verify the identity of the purchaser by comparing the received PIN number with the stored PIN number. The at least one terminal is preferably also arranged to receive payment information from a purchaser and the rewards system is arranged to 7 forward the payment information to a financial institution associated with the purchaser for the purpose of carrying out electronic payment for a product.

Preferably, the financial control means is arranged to coordinate transfer of financial amounts between the rewards financial account and the seller financial accounts.

The rewards financial account preferably includes a members financial account including a financial amount attributable to purchasers associated with the rewards systems, and a system financial account including information indicative of a financial amount attributable to operators of the rewards system.

The rewards system is preferably arranged such that, during a rewards receiving operation, a proportion of said financial amount transferred to the rewards financial account is transferred to the system financial account as an administration fee, and the remainder of said financial amount transferred to the rewards financial account is transferred to the members financial account and associated with a purchaser.

The rewards system preferably further includes a customer application arranged to receive requests from the at least one terminal and to generate reports in response to the requests, each said report being generated on the basis of user entered criteria and including information indicative of at least one purchaser, at least one seller and/or transactions between the at least one purchaser, the at least one seller and the rewards system; a funds management application arranged to manage the financial amount in the rewards financial account; and a help application arranged to receive requests for assistance from purchasers and/or sellers associated with the system.

The help application preferably includes voice recognition software.

The rewards system preferably also includes a database application arranged to store the user accounts.

8 The customer application, the funds management application and/or the help application may be accessible using a point of sale terminal, a telephone or an Internet enabled computing device.

The rewards system may also include a controller arranged to coordinate functions in the rewards system.

The communications network preferably includes a first communications network arranged to carry communications signals between the at least one terminal and the controller, and a second communications network arranged to carry communications signals between the controller, the rewards financial account and seller the financial accounts.

In a preferred embodiment, the at least one point of sale terminal includes a card reading device arranged to cooperate with an identification card so as to retrieve purchaser identification information from the identification card.

The at least one point of sale terminal may be an EFTPOS type terminal, a PCPOS type terminal or an Internet enabled computing device.

In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of rewarding purchaser loyalty, said method including the steps of: providing at least one point of sale terminal; receiving at a point of sale terminal information indicative of an offered rewards amount offered for purchase of a product; receiving at a point of sale terminal information indicative of a selected rewards amount selected by/a user for redemption; providing communications means for facilitating communications between the at least one point of sale terminal, a rewards financial account associated with the rewards system, and at least one seller financial account associated with a seller; providing a plurality of user accounts, each user 9 account being associated with a purchaser; during a rewards receiving operation, transferring a financial amount corresponding to an offered rewards amount received by the at least one point of sale terminal to said rewards financial account when said product is purchased by a purchaser; associating said transferred financial amount with the purchaser; each user account including a rewards balance amount indicative of the balance of financial amounts transferred to and from said rewards financial account and associated with the purchaser; during a rewards redeeming operation, transferring at least a proportion of the respective cumulative financial amount associated with a purchaser and corresponding to a selected rewards amount received by the at least one point of sale terminal from the rewards financial account to a seller financial account associated with a seller of a product when the product is purchased from the seller by the purchaser.

Description of the Drawings The present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is block diagram of a rewards system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 is a flow diagram indicating a rewards receiving operation of the embodiment shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a flow diagram indicating a rewards redeeming operation of the embodiment shown in Figure 1.

Description of an Embodiment of the Present Invention In a broad sense, the present invention relates to a rewards system which operates such that during a rewards 10 receiving operation, a financial amount corresponding to a proportion of the purchase price of a product is transferred to a rewards account when a product is purchased and, during a rewards redeeming operation, at least a proportion of the amount in the rewards account is transferred to a seller account when a product is purchased.

In this way, not only may rewards be received at a point of sale as part of an act of purchasing a product, but rewards may also be redeemed at a point of sale as part of an act of purchasing a product. This is possible since the rewards received correspond to a financial amount.

Referring to the drawings, in Figure 1 there is shown a rewards system 10 which includes user interface devices in the form of point of sale terminals 12, 14 and a processing unit 15. The point of sale terminals 12, 14 are of any suitable type capable of acting as an interface between a purchaser and the rewards system 10 and, in particular, of the type capable of receiving reward information and user identification information at a point of sale, and capable of forwarding the reward information and user identification information to the processing unit The rewards system 10 is arranged such that purchasers who have registered with the rewards system become members of the rewards system 10, with each member being allocated a member rewards account. The member rewards accounts are arranged to store information indicative of the financial amounts attributable to each member as a result of purchases made by the members and rewards received by the members. In this embodiment, the member rewards accounts do not store financial amounts per se but instead store points which represent financial amounts stored in a financial account associated with members of the rewards system 10. However, it will be understood that the member rewards accounts may be 11 financial accounts, with each financial account being arranged to store a financial amount attributed to a member as a result of purchases made by the member.

In order to facilitate registration of new members, sellers registered with the system may be provided with a plurality of identification cards which may be issued to new members at the point of sale. When a card is first used, the card is activated and a member rewards account is activated and allocated to the member. The allocated member rewards account is then associated with the member details provided by the member when the member formally registers with the rewards system The rewards system 10 may also be arranged such that sellers who have registered with the system become registered sellers authorised by operators of the system to offer rewards as a result of an act of purchasing a product and to accept rewards as at least part payment for purchase of a product.

The rewards system 10 communicates with at least one financial institution, in this example a first bank 16 and a second bank 18. The first and second banks 16, 18 hold an account for member accumulated rewards and accounts 32 for a plurality of sellers.

The rewards system 10 includes a first communications network 20 which may be any communications network suitable for carrying communications signals between the point of sale terminals 12, 14 and the processing unit In this example, the first communications network 20 is arranged to carry communications signals from a variety of user interface devices, such as EFTPOS terminals, PCPOS terminals, telephones and Internet enabled personal computer devices. However, it will be understood that in practice several communications networks may be utilised for carrying communications signals between the user interface devices and the processing unit 15, each communications network being specific to particular communications signals from a particular user interface 12 device.

The EFTPOS terminal 12 is arranged to receive identification information indicative of the identity of a purchaser, to receive rewards information indicative of the rewards amount applicable for a purchase, to forward the identification information and the rewards information to the processing unit 15, and to receive and forward payment information to a financial institution associated with a purchaser for the purpose of carrying out electronic payment of a product.

The EFTPOS terminal 12 may be a standard EFTPOS terminal which has been provided with interface software to enable the EFTPOS terminal 12 to communicate with the processing unit 15 through the communications network in accordance with the present invention. Alternatively, the EFTPOS terminal 12 may be specifically designed to operate in accordance with the present invention.

Similarly, the PCPOS terminal 14 is arranged to receive identification information indicative of the identity of a purchaser, to receive information indicative of the rewards amount applicable for a purchase, to forward the identification information and the rewards information to the processing unit 15, and to receive and forward payment information to a financial institution associated with a purchaser for the purpose of carrying out electronic payment of a product.

However, it will be understood that although the EFTPOS and PCPOS terminals 12, 14 are arranged to facilitate electronic payment of a product, this is not an essential requirement of the invention, and other methods of payment are also applicable, such as payment by cash or credit card.

In this embodiment, a purchaser is identified at the point of sale by virtue of an identification card issued to the purchaser by operators of the rewards system the card containing identification information unique to the purchaser. For example, the card may be of the type 13 including a magnetic strip for recording information or the card may be of the type known as "smart cards" and which include an integrated circuit for recording information. Of course, in order for the point of sale terminals 12, 14 to be able to receive the identification information from the identification cards, the point of sale terminals would be provided with card reading devices.

However, although not ideal, it will be understood that the use of identification cards is not an essential requirement of the invention and purchasers could be identified merely by manually communicating the appropriate identification information to a representative of a seller at the point of sale.

Likewise, registered sellers may be identified by virtue of an identification card issued to the sellers by operators of the system.

The processing unit 15 includes a controller 22 which generally serves to coordinate functions in the processing unit 15. The controller 22 is arranged to receive communications from the user interface devices, in particular from the EFTPOS terminal 12 and the PCPOS terminal 14, to interrogate and instruct applications of the processing unit 15, to carry out actions in response to such interrogations or in response to instructions from the terminals, and to direct information from the processing unit 15 through the communications network to the user interface devices.

The controller 22 communicates with a financial control application 24 which serves as an interface between the controller 22 and the financial institutions 16, 18. The main function of the financial control application 24 is to instruct the transfer of financial amounts between accounts in the financial institutions 16, 18. The financial control application 24 also calculates the number of points corresponding to each financial amount transferred between financial accounts in the 14 financial institutions 16, 18, and forwards information indicative of the calculated number of points to the controller 22 for crediting to or debiting from the appropriate member account. Of course, since this application interfaces with financial institutions, it will be subject to the security rules set by the banking system.

The financial control application 24 communicates with the financial institutions 16, 18 through a second communications network 26 which may be any communications network suitable for carrying communications signals between the processing unit 15 and the financial institutions 16, 18.

The first bank 16 includes a rewards financial account 28 associated with the rewards system 10, and a plurality of seller accounts 30, each of which is associated with a seller of goods and/or services. The second bank 18 includes a plurality of seller accounts 32, each of which is associated with a seller of goods and/or services.

The rewards financial account 28 includes a members financial account including information indicative of a financial amount attributable to members of the rewards system 10, and a system financial account including information indicative of a financial amount attributable to the operators of the rewards system The controller 22 communicates with a database application 34, a customer application 36, a help application 38 and a funds management application Each of the applications 34, 36, 38, 40 may be in the form of a separate computing device arranged to communicate with the controller 22, or may be in the form of a software application with each software application stored on the same computing device.

The database application 34 serves to store member account information in the form of a plurality of member rewards accounts, with each member rewards account 15 including information indicative of transactions attributable to the member to and from the members financial account. The transaction information stored in each member rewards account is in the form of a cumulative total of points, with each point corresponding to a predetermined financial amount, for example 10 cents. The database application 34 operates such that a transaction to the members financial account and attributable to a particular member results in the addition of a number of points corresponding to the transaction to the cumulative total of points in the respective member rewards account.

The database application also operates such that a transaction from the members financial account to a seller financial account and attributable to a particular member results in the subtraction of a number of points corresponding to the transaction from the cumulative total of points in the respective member rewards account.

The database application 34 also includes details of PIN numbers associated with the members, and PIN numbers of sellers registered with the rewards system The customer application 36 is arranged to store member and seller information such as the names and addresses of the members and sellers and other demographic information relating to the members and sellers. The customer application 36 is also arranged to interrogate the other applications 34, 38, 40 in the processing unit in response to requests to generate reports. Such reports may be forwarded to the requesting user interface device through the first communications network 20 or to requestors by any other suitable communications method, for example by e-mail, standard mail or facsimile. For example, the customer application 36 may be arranged to cooperate with the database application 34 so as to provide points balance information and/or transaction history information on request. The customer application 36 may also serve to generate purchasing activity data of members which can be combined with member demographic 16 information to carry out targeted sales promotion.

The help application 38 is arranged to receive and respond to requests for assistance from members and/or sellers. For this purpose the help application 38 may be supported by human operators and/or may include voice recognition software.

The customer application 36 and the help application 38 are accessible through the first communications network using any suitable user interface device, in this example by using the EFTPOS terminal 12, the PCPOS terminal 14 and a personal computing device 41 which may be located at the home or workplace of a member.

The help application 38 may also be accessible using a telephone 42, the user interacting with the help application using the voice recognition software of the help application 38.

The funds management application 40 communicates with the controller 22 and the first bank 16 and serves to manage the financial amount in the rewards financial account 28 with a view to generating revenue for the operators of the rewards system Operation of the rewards system 10 will now be described in relation to a rewards receiving operation wherein a member of the rewards system 10 receives rewards as a result of purchasing a product.

Steps of a rewards receiving operation are indicated by reference numerals 46 to 62 in Figure 2.

The member first negotiates a product price and the number of points to be offered for the product with a representative of a seller. Once the member and the representative have agreed on the product price and the number of points offered, the member pays for the product by cash, credit card, EFTPOS transfer or any other suitable payment method acceptable by the member and the seller. The member then provides the seller with information identifying the member by supplying the seller with an identification card and the seller introducing the 17 identification card into the card reading device of the point of sale terminal 12, 14.

Of course, as mentioned above, it will be understood that although the member identification card is a particularly desirable way to identify the members, other identification methods may be used, the important aspect being that the point of sale terminal is provided with information indicative of the identity of the member so that the rewards system 10 is able to allocate the appropriate number of points to the members account in the database application 34.

Once the member identification information has been received by the point of sale terminal 12, 14, the information is forwarded from the point of sale terminal 12, 14 to the controller 22 through the first communications network 20, whereupon the controller 22 communicates with the database application 34 to verify that the information used to identify the member correlates with information indicative of the member in the database application 34.

Following positive correlation, the member provides the point of sale terminal 12, 14 with a PIN number.

Information indicative of the PIN number is then forwarded through the first communications network 20 to the controller 22 which then compares the entered PIN number with the PIN number stored in the database application 34 and associated with the member.

The rewards system 10 is also arranged to require verification of the identity of the seller, for example by receiving information identifying the seller and a PIN number associated with the seller. Preferably, verification of a seller occurs when the seller first connects with the rewards system. However, it will be understood that verification of the seller may occur as part of each act of purchasing a product.

Following a positive identification of the PIN number and therefore a positive identification of the member, the 18 number of points offered for the product is entered into the point of sale terminal, for example by the representative of the seller. A financial amount corresponding to the number of points offered is then calculated by the financial control application 24 and the financial control application 24 transfers the calculated financial amount from the seller account 30, 32 associated with the seller to the rewards financial account 28. A proportion of the calculated financial amount is allocated to the system financial account as an administration fee, and the remainder of the calculated financial amount is allocated to the members financial account.

The financial control application 24 also calculates the number of points corresponding to the financial amount transferred to the members financial account and instructs the controller 22 to add the appropriate number of points to the member rewards account in the database application 34.

It will be understood that instead of transferring a financial amount from a seller account 30, 32 to the rewards financial account 28 as a result of entering an offered number of points into the point of sale terminal 12, 14, if the member pays by EFTPOS or credit card, the financial amount may be transferred to the rewards financial account 28 directly from a financial account held by the member.

A rewards redeeming operation will now be described wherein a member of the rewards system 10 redeems rewards as part of an act of purchasing a product.

Steps of the rewards redeeming operation are indicated by reference numerals 64 to 82 in Figure 3.

The member first negotiates the product price with a representative of the seller. Likewise with the rewards receiving operation, the member is then identified by providing an identification card and by entering a PIN number.

Following positive identification of the member, the 19 member selects the number of points to be used for the purchase and the controller 22 communicates with the database application 34 so as to determine whether the number of points selected by the member are available to the member.

If the selected number of points are available to the member, the financial control application 24 calculates a financial amount corresponding to the selected number of points and transfers the calculated financial amount from the members financial account to a seller financial account 30, 32 associated with the seller. The controller 22 then communicates with the database application 34 so as to deduct the selected number of points from the member rewards account.

The difference, if any, between the price of the product and the calculated financial amount is then determined and the difference is paid by the member by any suitable method, for example by cash, credit card, EFTPOS or a combination of any of these methods.

It will be understood that the rewards system 10 may be arranged so that the member also receives rewards points as a result of purchase of a product even when the product is purchased at least partly using rewards points.

It will be appreciated that the present rewards system encourages purchasers to return and repurchase by providing purchasers registered with the system with rewards which are directly backed by a financial amount and which may be utilised to purchase goods and/or services from a plurality of sellers registered with the system. In this way and by only allowing a predetermined proportion of sellers to be registered with the system the registered sellers are provided with an advantage in the marketplace over non-registered sellers.

It will also be appreciated that the present rewards system provides purchasers with a powerful incentive to repurchase from a seller in a more cost effective way than rewards systems known hitherto since it is not necessary 20 to provide members with expensive printed material such as catalogues of goods and/or services on offer. With the present system, all products and/or services which are on offer for sale from registered sellers are available for purchase using the rewards. Similarly, all products and/or services which are on offer for sale from registered sellers can serve to generate rewards for the members.

It will also be appreciated that in order to reduce fraud, the rewards system may be arranged so as to distinguish between total points held and points available for redemption, wherein points only become available for redemption after a predetermined period of time.

Furthermore, it will be appreciated that since the rewards received by members registered with the rewards system are backed by financial amounts, the members are able to negotiate the sale price of products with sellers.

Modifications and variations as would be apparent to a skilled addressee are deemed to be within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (4)

1. A rewards system for rewarding purchaser loyalty, said system including: at least one point of sale terminal for receiving information indicative of an offered rewards amount offered for purchase of a product and for receiving information indicative of a selected rewards amount selected by a user for redemption; communications means for facilitating communications between the at least one point of sale terminal, a rewards financial account associated with the rewards system, and at least one seller financial account associated with a seller; and a plurality of user accounts, each user account being associated with a purchaser; said system being arranged, during a rewards receiving operation, to transfer a financial amount corresponding to an offered rewards amount received by the at least one point of sale terminal to said rewards financial account when said product is purchased by a purchaser, and to associate said transferred financial amount with the purchaser; each user account including a rewards balance amount indicative of the balance of financial amounts transferred to and from said rewards financial account and associated with the purchaser; said system being arranged, during a rewards redeeming operation, to transfer at least a proportion of the respective cumulative financial amount associated with a purchaser and corresponding to a selected rewards amount received by the at least one point of sale terminal from the rewards financial account to a seller financial account associated with a seller of a product when the product is purchased from the seller by the purchaser.

2. A rewards system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system is arranged, during a rewards receiving operation, 22 to transfer said financial amount corresponding to the offered rewards amount from a financial account of the seller of the product to said rewards financial account.

3. A rewards system as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein each said rewards balance amount is in the form of points, each point representing a predetermined financial amount.

4. A method of rewarding purchaser loyalty, said method including the steps of: providing at least one point of sale terminal; receiving at a point of sale terminal information indicative of an offered rewards amount offered for purchase of a product; receiving at a point of sale terminal information indicative of a selected rewards amount selected by a user for redemption; providing communications means for facilitating communications between the at least one point of sale terminal, a rewards financial account associated with the rewards system, and at least one seller financial account associated with a seller; providing a plurality of user accounts, each user account being associated with a purchaser; during a rewards receiving operation, transferring a financial amount corresponding to an offered rewards amount received by the at least one point of sale terminal to said rewards financial account when said product is purchased by a purchaser; associating said transferred financial amount with the purchaser; each user account including a rewards balance amount indicative of the balance of financial amounts transferred to and from said rewards financial account and associated with the purchaser; during a rewards redeeming operation, transferring at least a proportion of the respective cumulative financial amount associated with a purchaser and corresponding to a 23 selected rewards amount received by the at least one point of sale terminal from the rewards financial account to a seller financial account associated with a seller of a product when the product is purchased from the seller by the purchaser. A rewards system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as shown in, the accompanying drawings. Dated this 29th day of May 2001 REAL REWARDS PTY LTD By their Patent Attorneys GRIFFITH HACK