Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
  • G06Q20/08—Payment architectures
  • G06Q20/20—Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
  • G06Q20/22—Payment schemes or models
  • G06Q20/28—Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
  • G06Q20/30—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols characterised by the use of specific devices or networks
  • G06Q20/34—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols characterised by the use of specific devices or networks using cards, e.g. integrated circuit [IC] cards or magnetic cards
  • G06Q20/342—Cards defining paid or billed services or quantities
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F17/00—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services
  • G07F17/42—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services for ticket printing or like apparatus, e.g. apparatus for dispensing of printed paper tickets or payment cards
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F7/00—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus
  • G07F7/02—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus by keys or other credit registering devices
  • G07F7/025—Mechanisms actuated by objects other than coins to free or to actuate vending, hiring, coin or paper currency dispensing or refunding apparatus by keys or other credit registering devices by means, e.g. cards, providing billing information at the time of purchase, e.g. identification of seller or purchaser, quantity of goods delivered or to be delivered
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07G—REGISTERING THE RECEIPT OF CASH, VALUABLES, OR TOKENS
  • G07G1/00—Cash registers
  • G07G1/12—Cash registers electronically operated
  • G07G1/14—Systems including one or more distant stations co-operating with a central processing unit
  • G07G1/145—PLU-management

Definitions

• This invention relates generally to systems for issuing consumer entitlements in a retail store
• the invention relates to systems for issuing promotions or certificates of the type that requires a unique personal identification number (PIN) to be conveyed to a customer receiving the item
• PIN personal identification number
• PINs are printed or encoded on valuable certificates awarded to customers and subject to authorization for various products and services
• Each certificate must be resistant to fraud and must be secure from duplication Having random but valid unique numbers requires the creation and storage of the numbers in databases or on preprinted certificates.
• the administration of such databases or certificates become expensive and is subject to fraud
• the art relating to PIN generation is discussed in detail in United States Patent 5,892,827.
• a marketing technique that has enjoyed increasing popularity is the awarding, at the point-of- sale, of a free product or service as an incentive to purchase other products or services
• Typical marketing programs offer 5 or 10 minutes of long distance service as incentives to purchasing the sponsoring company's product, as potential prizes for participating in a marketing contest, or as premiums offered under a retailer's frequent shopper loyalty program, or simply as a product for purchase
• This method entails the registration of the consumer and the issuance of a telephone "credit card" for which an account is established and is later credited with certain dollar amounts of telephone service based on the consumer's actions or purchases
• Another method is to issue telephone "debit cards" to each consumer meeting the requirements of the particular marketing program
• These debit cards are generally pre-authorized in 5 or 10 minute denominations The issuance of a debit card does not establish an account, but rather is authorized for the specified amount of telephone service and then becomes useless after the telephone time is exhausted.
• PIN personal identification number
• a dead card is one that has a PIN that must be activated by the retailer before distribution to the consumer Activating preset PINs is very expensive, time consuming and error prone Distributing dead cards with PINs that require activation is, therefore, inconvenient and is still prone to theft and misuse because some card suppliers preprint and assign the PINs in a uniform, predictable or unprotected manner Dishonest persons may dial the access number and enter PINs until they successfully access the service, or may look for a pattern in multiple PINs, and then resell the PIN and access numbers to different users Another potential problem is that some PIN sequences are purposely short, for the convenience of the user This creates a dangerous situation, since a computer dialer can more easily pick and decipher short PINs that are not encoded
• Some prepaid telephone cards are sold or vended in enclosed plastic containers placed in a store display rack
• the cashier selling such cards typically scans a bar code on the display itself, and a PIN is obtained by placing a call to the service provider
• This bar-coded activation method fails to prevent fraud or misuse by others as the bar codes can be duplicated and used on more than one card A thief could steal one or more cards and purchase one to obtain the valid batch code, thus activating the stolen cards as well
• the invention provides a computer implemented system and method for assuring security and validity of pseudo randomly numbered authorization codes, typically printed on certificates or stored in machine readable memory on user's cards, including a first algorithmic means on a first computer for generating an authorization code in response to a request, and a second algorithmic means on a second computer for determining if a code provided by a user is an authorization code that would be generated by said first algorithmic means.
• the transmission of the second algorithmic means to the second computer obviates the requirement to transmit actual generated codes from the computer providing the authorization code to the computer determining if the code presented by a user is an authorized code.
• the algorithm transmitted from the first computer, such as a retail store computer that functions to monitor transactions at point of sale (POS) terminals and kiosks of a store, to the second computer may either be the same algorithm used by the first computer, or the transmitted algorithm may be modified so that it functions by receiving a user's code and determining if the user's code is a code that could have been generated by the algorithm used in the first store. That is, the computer code defining the algorithm transmitted to the second computer may not have the ability to print or display codes, thereby preventing a user of the second computer from fraudulently obtaining and validating authorization codes. Instead the computer code defining the algorithm transmitted to the second computer may only have the ability to determine whether a code input to the second computer is valid in the sense that the code input into it is one that could be generated by the algorithm running on the first computer.
• the authorization code contains a date indicating a date on which it was generated.
• the product or service is a telecommunications services credit.
• the product or service may be a discount on another product or service.
• product or service is a product or service that is not provided by the retail store at which the user receives the authorization code.
• the authorization code may include digits associated with the store at which the authorization code was generated
• the authorization code generation algorithm generates a code only once
• the method of the invention comprises the steps of detecting the occurrence of an event that has been preselected to trigger the generation of an authorization code for distribution to a customer of a retail store, generating a certificate or card storing in human or machine readable form the authorization code, the authorization codes generated in a seemingly random sequence by a pseudo random code generating algorithm to avoid deciphering of the algorithm, receiving at a second computer from a user a code, using an algorithm to determine if the received code from the user is one that would be generated by the algorithm, and if so, determining to provide the associated product or service associated with the code to the user If a determination is made to provide the associated product or service to the user, the product or service provider provides the product or service to the user
• Figure 1 is a schematic of an embodiment of a novel computer system of the invention
• Figure 2 is a flow chart of the process of a consumer receiving an authorization code for the system of Figure 1
• FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the process of validating the authorization code for the system of Figure 1
• FIG. 1 shows a first computer 1 connected to a POS terminal 2 and a kiosk 3 of a store 6
• the POS terminal 2 includes means to enter transaction data and provide price information for transacting a sale with a customer POS terminals are well known in the art
• the POS terminal 2 may include a machine means to identify products codes and a user identification, such as a bar code scanner (for scanning product identification bar codes on product items and user identification bar codes on user identification cards), a magnetic stripe reader for scanning magnetic media containing a user's identification number (such as a bank or credit card), a MICR coder reader for reading MICR codes on checks to obtain check authorization and to obtain a user identification
• the POS terminal also includes a means to write an authorization code in either human readable form or machine readable form
• the store 6 may also include a kiosk 3
• a kiosk is a terminal of a computer system including a means for the customer to enter a payment (such as cash or a credit card) or a unique identification associated with the customer and a means for writing an authorization code in either human readable form or machine readable form
• the POS terminal 2 and the kiosk 3 of the store 6 are each connected via a communication line with the first computer 1
• the communication line may pass through network connections or other intermediaries
• the first computer may be a store controller computer
• the first computer 1 is connected via a communication line to a second computer 4
• the second computer 4 is in communication with a user device 5.
• the user device 5 may be a wire line telephone, a wire less telephone, or another computer.
• the user device 5 may be any device that enables a user to transmit data signals conveying an authorization code to the second computer 4
• step 10 the consumer takes action which results in a request signal transmitted from the POS terminal 2 or the kiosk 3 to the first computer 1 prompting generation of an authorization code.
• the action by the consumer may be the purchase of an item at the POS terminal or the kiosk entitling the user to an authorization code for a product, service, or discount on a product or service, it may be an explicit request by the consumer to purchase an authorization code entitling the user to receive the product or the service, it may be based upon the customer's prior shopping history as recorded in a database associated with the first computer 1, or it may instead be based a promotional campaign in which each consumer at either the POS terminal 2 or the kiosk 3 are provided an authorization code
• the first computer 1 generates an authorization code.
• the first computer 1 transmits the generated code to the POS terminal or kiosk.
• the POS terminal or kiosk records the authorization code in a recordable medium
• the medium is paper and the code is in human readable digits, such as letters and numbers, and the printed paper includes a telephone number to call to obtain the authorized product or service
• step 14 the second computer system 4 receives the code entered into the user device 5
• step 21 the second computer system 4 executes an algorithm that determines if the code it received is one that could have been generated by the authorization code algorithm.
• the product or service associated with the authorization code is prepaid telecommunication time.
• the second computer system 4 determines that the code it received from the user device 5 is one that could have been generated by the authorization code algorithm, it queries the user device 5 for a telephone number to which to credit prepaid telecommunications time, receives a telephone number from the user device 5, and credits the account for that telephone number.
• the second computer system 4 may also provide a dial around telephone number to the user device 5 and instruct the consumer to dial the dial around number as a precondition for using the credit obtained from the authorization code
• the second computer system stores authorization numbers received from a user device and does not reauthorize any of those numbers

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• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
• Strategic Management (AREA)
• General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Finance (AREA)
• Development Economics (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Game Theory and Decision Science (AREA)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
• Economics (AREA)
• Marketing (AREA)
• Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
• Cash Registers Or Receiving Machines (AREA)
• Electrically Operated Instructional Devices (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (1)

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ID=9889159

Family Applications (1)

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• 2000
  • 2000-04-04 GB GBGB0008248.7A patent/GB0008248D0/en not_active Ceased
  • 2000-05-09 WO PCT/US2000/006708 patent/WO2001075826A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2000-05-09 CA CA002403234A patent/CA2403234A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2000-05-09 AU AU2000246407A patent/AU2000246407A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2000-05-09 EP EP00928125A patent/EP1269437A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2000-05-09 JP JP2001573425A patent/JP2003529862A/ja active Pending
  • 2000-06-19 ZA ZA200003075A patent/ZA200003075B/xx unknown
  • 2000-06-20 IT IT2000MI001389A patent/ITMI20001389A1/it unknown
  • 2000-07-05 PT PT102488A patent/PT102488A/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2000-11-23 BE BE2000/0749A patent/BE1013467A3/fr not_active IP Right Cessation

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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