Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records – Banking systems
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-09
2002-10-22
Lee, Michael G. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
Banking systems
C235S380000, C235S383000, C235S492000, C235S493000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06467685
ABSTRACT:
FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronic value system having electronic stored-valued, and in particular to such a system with system-level monitoring of the stored value.
Smart cart technology has enabled two consumer payment applications: the charge (credit or debit) card with enhanced security (especially in off-line payment,) and the stored-value card, also called electronic purse. The two applications are complementary: the charge card is more suitable for medium-to-higher payments, while the electronic purse's arena is small payments. The potential synergy between two payment applications is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,787 by the present inventors and assigned to common applicants of the present application.
A major concern in any payment system is security, i.e., preventing unauthorized transfer or production of money. In smart card stored-value payment, a vast number of patents, publications and implemented solutions deal with safeguarding payment and other value transfer transactions at the bank-to-consumer, consumer-to-merchant and merchant-to-bank levels. There are combinations of hardware, software and procedures believed to withstand any attack conducted for a reasonable time using known means. However, as security is so crucial to payment systems, many bankers insist on monitoring the flow of money at the system level, to reconfirm the flawless operation of the security means at the transaction levels. This security requirement has been commonly transformed into the concept of “full accountability”, i.e. recording and reporting all single stored-value transactions to a central computer, for checking and confirming that each addition of value to a first stored-value device has occurred only as the same amount had been deducted from a second stored-value device. Such accountability schemes require an enormous amount of data storage and transfer and may interfere with the privacy of consumers carrying personal payment cards.
OBJECTS AND BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The main object of the present invention is to monitor centrally the stored value (hereinafter referred-to as “electronic value”) in a stored-value system, for system-level reconfirmation of transaction-level security, without recording and reporting each single transaction. Another object is to minimize the amount of data stored and transferred for such monitoring. Still another object is to enable consumer anonymity and privacy in most small payments. Additional objects include measuring the amount of stored value lost or abandoned by consumers; measuring the amount of invalid stored value (if transaction-level security has malfunctioned or has been broken); providing controlled refresh options for periodical renewal of electronic value and its security parameters; maintaining local audit trails for identifying the sources of fraudulent electronic value; supporting multiple-issuer environments; and enabling satisfactorily-monitored card-to-card transfer of electronic value.
The following terms will be used herein as follows:
1. Electronic money - value which is recorded electronically and is useful for payment.
2. Account - a storage of electronic value at an institution. Non-limiting examples include the storage of electronic money or debt at a financial institution, such as bank accounts and credit accounts. The accounts of interest to the present invention are consumer account and merchant account.
3. Value issuer - a business entity establishing and maintaining accounts of electronic value. In some embodiments of the present invention, value issuers are financial institutions, such as banks, credit companies and telephone companies. Actually, the term value issuer will usually relate to the computer system of such institutions used to store and maintain accounts and execute transactions therewith.
4. Charge - a consumer order to transfer electronic value from his account to another account.
5. Electronic value - value in a form which can be transferred to and stored in a consumer or merchant electronic storage device. The term “value” herein denotes any accumulated and transferable measure of worth, including but not limited to: money, cash, currency, or the equivalent thereof; loyalty points, airmiles, or other rewards or recognitions; barter credit or scrip; and coupons, such as discount coupons. The term “electronic cash” herein denotes an embodiment of electronic value that represents cash money or the equivalent thereof.
6. Stored-value device - an electronic storage device for storing electronic value.
7. Payment card - a consumer device for payment with electronic money. A payment card may include a charge card for generating charge orders (e.g., credit card or debit card), and/or an electronic purse or electronic coin purse, which is a consumer stored-value device or storage within a consumer stored-value device.
8. Smart card - a payment card designed to secure the information stored therein and the transactions made therewith.
9. Point of sale or POS, or point-of-sale terminal - a merchant's device for receiving payment and optionally also for determining the purchase contents and calculating the payment amount. A POS may be staffed (e.g., a supermarket cash register) or automatic (e.g., in a vending machine, public telephone or parking meter).
10. Electronic drawer, electronic coin drawer, or drawer - a merchant's secured electronic storage device or merchant stored-value device, usually forming part of POS, for storing electronic value (electronic value drawer) and/or charge orders (charge drawer).
11. Electronic value pool - a stored-value device for a financial institution or storage within a financial institution stored-value device, for storing and accounting for electronic value.
12. Elementary value unit, or EVU - the smallest amount of value that is relevant for transfer. In one embodiment of the present invention, the elementary value unit is a single loyalty point. In other embodiments, the elementary value unit is an elementary monetary value, or EMU, representing smallest amount of monetary value that is relevant for payment or change. An example 1¢ in the U.S. or 5 Agorot in Israel.
13. Serial number - data used for identification of a discrete entity and suitable for digital representation. Typical examples for serial numbers are positive integers and ASCII character strings.
14. Charge function - a means for making a charge. Charge functions may be coupled with a stored-value device. As a non-limiting example, the electronic coin purse of a payment card or personal network terminal may be coupled with a charge function. As another non-limiting example, a charge function may be coupled with an electronic coin drawer; the charge function of this example is herein denoted by the term “charge drawer”.
The present invention makes electronic value countable by devising the entity “electronic coin”, each electronic coin having a monetary value or other forms of value and a serial number. When an electronic coin moves, it moves along with its value and serial number. A percentage of random electronic coins flow through electronic coin pools of financial institutions, where forbidden repetitions or out-of-range serial numbers are sought. Such repetitions or out-of-range instances, if found, are reported to signal that there is a security leak at the transaction level and to estimate the size of the damage.
By creating a hierarchy of electronic coin types, each having a denomination which is a multiple of the previous denomination, the present invention supports very effective payment while minimizing storage requirements for electronic coins, especially on the payment card. The present invention teaches how to allocate tens or a couple hundred bytes of memory on the card, for storing hundreds of dollars, with 1¢ resolution, in a hundreds million card population, with a unique serial number for each electronic coin. This minimal storage requirement also implies minimal data communication requirement during t
Cardis Enterprise international N.V.
Eitan Pearl Latzer & Cohen-Zedek
Lee Michael G.
Walsh Daniel
LandOfFree
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