Payment cards

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10134087-B1
Application number	US-201113028986-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Feb 16, 2011
Priority date	Feb 16, 2011
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

Architectures and techniques are configured to distribute and activate payment cards. The techniques include providing payment cards to distributors, who then sell or distribute these cards to other users. Each of these payment cards may include activation information for activating the card as well as redemption information for redeeming a value associated with the card. The distributor may activate a card by, for instance, taking a picture of or scanning an identifier on the card and sending this image to a provider of the card. In response, the provider may activate the card.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
under control of a mobile device associated with a distributor configured with executable instructions,
downloading, from a provider, a payment-card application;
registering, via the payment-card application, a first identifier of the distributor with the provider;
downloading, via the payment-card application, an inactive digital multipart payment card, the inactive digital multipart payment card being one of a plurality of inactive digital multipart payment cards;
displaying, via the payment-card application, a user interface including:
a first part of the inactive digital multipart payment card comprising a second identifier that uniquely identifies the digital multipart payment card, and
a second part of the inactive digital multipart payment card comprising a redemption value available for use in purchasing one or more items;

sending, via the payment-card application, a request to the provider to activate the inactive digital multipart payment card, the request including the first identifier and the second identifier, wherein the provider:
determines, based at least in part on information from one or more environmental sensors of the mobile device of the distributor, that the mobile device of the distributor and an electronic device of a purchaser of the digital multipart payment card experienced a common event;
verifies that the digital multipart payment card is associated with the mobile device using the first identifier, and
causes the digital multipart payment card to be activated; and

modifying, via the payment-card application, the user interface to remove the second part of the inactive digital multipart payment card.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the request further includes the redemption value associated with the digital multipart payment card.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 , further comprising designating the redemption value based at least partly on input received from a recipient of the second part of the digital multipart payment card during activation of the digital multipart payment card.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
altering an amount of an account associated with the distributor for the redemption value.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
altering an amount of an account associated with the distributor for at least a portion of the redemption value.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
sending, via the payment-card application, a request to activate an additional digital multipart payment card of the plurality of inactive digital multipart payment cards; and
receiving, from the provider, a response denying activation of the additional digital multipart payment card, wherein denying activation of the additional digital multipart payment card is based at least partly on determining that an account associated with the distributor has insufficient funds.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, via the payment-card application and as part of activating the digital multipart payment card, an award.

8. The method as recited in claim 7 , wherein the award includes at least one of the following: coupons, virtual credits, loyalty points, virtual currency for redemption in an online game, virtual currency for redemption in a virtual world, or virtual currency for redemption in a social network.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the provider, additional information of one or more additional environmental sensors of the electronic device associated with the purchaser of the digital multipart payment card, and
identifying, by the provider, an account of the purchaser of the digital multipart payment card based at least in part on the additional information of the one or more additional environmental sensors.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 , further comprising:
comparing the additional information of the one or more additional environmental sensors of the electronic device associated with the purchaser to the information of the one or more environmental sensors of the mobile device of the distributor; and
determining that the additional information of the one or more additional environmental sensors of the electronic device of the purchaser and the information of the one or more environmental sensors of the mobile device associated with-the distributor exceeds a similarity threshold.

11. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the second identifier comprises a bar code, a quick response (QR) code, an alphanumeric code, a numeric code, or an activation code for activating the digital multipart payment card.

12. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of inactive digital multipart payment cards are associated with one or more merchants, and wherein the second part of the digital multipart payment card includes at least one of a bar code, a QR code, or a redemption code for purchasing the one or more items from the one or more merchants.

13. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of inactive digital multipart payment cards are made available to the mobile device of the distributor.

14. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the request to activate the digital multipart payment card identifies the purchaser of the digital multipart payment card, and the method further comprises sending, to the electronic device of the purchaser, a confirmation that the digital multipart payment card has been activated.

15. A method comprising:
identifying an account of a distributor with a provider, wherein the account includes a first identifier of a mobile device of the distributor;
sending a plurality of inactive digital payment instruments to the mobile device of the distributor;
receiving information from an environmental sensor of the mobile device of the distributor;
determining, based at least in part on the information from the environmental sensor, that the mobile device of the distributor is associated with an electronic device of a purchaser of the digital payment instrument;
receiving, from the mobile device of the distributor, an activation request for a digital payment instrument of the plurality of inactive digital payment instruments, wherein the activation request comprises:
activation information including the first identifier,
a second identifier of the purchaser of the digital payment instrument, and
redemption information that is associated with the digital payment instrument and comprises a value of the digital payment instrument that is available for use in purchasing one or more items;

verifying that the digital payment instrument is associated with the distributor based, at least in part, on the activation information;
determining that a balance of the account of the distributor is at least the value of the digital payment instrument;
causing the digital payment instrument to be activated; and
sending, to the electronic device of the purchaser, a confirmation that the digital payment instrument has been activated.

16. The method as recited in claim 15 , further comprising:
causing an amount of the account of the distributor to be altered for the value associated with the digital payment instrument.

17. The method as recited in claim 15 , wherein sending to the distributor a plurality of inactive digital payment instruments comprises:
providing, to the mobile device of the distributor, access to the plurality of inactive digital payment instru

Assignees

• Geller Michal J
• Hart Gregory M
• Bezos Jeffrey P
• Carr Michael
• Williams Brian R
• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Geller Michal J
• Hart Gregory M
• Bezos Jeffrey P
• Carr Michael
• Williams Brian R

Classifications

• G06Q40/00 Primary

  Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes · CPC title