U.S. Patent Number 8,214,298 – Systems and Methods for Performing Wireless Financial Transactions
Every Tuesday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office publishes newly granted patents. This blog post is part of a weekly series in which I pick an interesting new patent that has Idaho connections and briefly describe it.
Inventor: Steven Harvey McCown (Rigby, ID)
Assignee: RFinity Corporation (Idaho Falls, ID)
This invention deals with processing financial transactions using wireless technology, and specifically by authorizing a transaction using the respective mobile devices of a buyer and a seller. Essentially, the flow of such a transaction follows this process: The buyer’s device sends the details of the transaction, including the dollar amount and the buyer’s credentials, to the seller’s device using a local wireless network. The seller’s device then sends a request to the buyer’s financial institution for a transfer of funds from the buyer’s financial institution to the seller’s financial institution, after which the buyer’s device sends an authorization for the requested transfer. If the transfer was successful, an acknowledgement is sent to both buyer’s and seller’s devices.
There is no doubt that the mobile computing sector will continue to increase on an exponential scale and innovators are aware of the huge potential value that a patent like this can hold.