# US 10,121,127 B1 · System and method for processing group gift cards > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,121,127 B1 - Document ID: US10121127B1 - Status: Granted - Kind: B1 - Application number: 14/467,567 - Filed: 2014-08-25 - Granted: 2018-11-06 - Earliest claimed: 2008-03-13 - Assignees: GiftYa LLC - Applicants: GiftYa LLC - Inventors: Thomas M. Isaacson; Ryan C. Durham; Patrick Ledbetter; Adam Ludwig - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10121127B1 ## CPC - G06Q 30/0605: {Pooling transaction partners, e.g. group buying or group selling} - G06Q 20/10: specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems - G06Q 20/105: {involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"} - G06Q 20/24: Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after" - G06Q 20/387: {Payment using discounts or coupons (relating to marketing G06Q30/02)} - G06Q 30/0234: Rebates after completed purchase - G06Q 30/0601: Electronic shopping [e-shopping] - G06Q 40/02: Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance (credit or loans G06Q40/03) - 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 ## Abstract Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for managing a group gift using a system in which a recipient (purchaser of the group gift) and givers have registered payment accounts with the system. The system displays, on a graphical user interface, at least the giver and the recipient to yield a proposed transfer configuration at a first time. A gift or a merchant can also be identified in the interface. Upon receiving a confirmation from at least one of the giver and the receiver of the proposed transfer configuration, the system establishes a money transfer policy that indicates that, upon detecting a qualifying purchase made using the recipient payment account, at least a portion of a transfer amount is applied to the recipient payment account from at least one giver account. The system simplifies the process of a group of people joining together to buy a gift. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method comprising: identifying, at a first time and via a processor and a control engine, a group of givers, each giver of the group of givers having a respective giver payment account, wherein each respective giver payment account is independent of and has no control over other giver payment accounts of the group of givers, and wherein each respective giver payment account exists prior to the first time; identifying, through a user interface and by the control engine via a processor, a gift credit associated with a gift; establishing, via a processor and a policy control entity, a policy, stored at a central server, being at least in part giver defined and associated with managing a transfer of money according to the gift credit from at least one respective giver payment account to a buyer payment account of a buyer to cover at least a portion of the gift cost, wherein the buyer payment account is an open loop account that existed prior to the first time; transmitting, by the control engine via a processor, an electronic notice to a device of the buyer, the notice being linked to the buyer payment account; monitoring, by an intelligent network engine remote from the control engine and at a second time which is later than the first time, purchases using the buyer payment account to identify a qualifying purchase according to the policy; and based on the qualifying purchase, transferring, by the control engine via a processor, at least a portion of the gift credit from each of the at least one respective giver payment account to the buyer payment account according to the policy. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the gift credit further comprises determining that the buyer has purchased the gift associated with the gift credit using the buyer payment account. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the gift credit further comprises receiving from the buyer an identification of at least one of the gift credit and a gift description. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the at least a portion of the gift credit from each respective giver payment account to a merchant account, the merchant account being associated with a merchant offering the gift for sale, and wherein the buyer is one of the givers in the group of givers. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, further comprising transferring the at least a portion of the gift credit from each respective giver payment account, except the buyer payment account, to the buyer payment account, such that the buyer payment account is reimbursed for at least some of the gift cost. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein after identifying, at the first time, the group of givers, the method further comprising: adding an additional giver to the group of givers, yielding a new group of givers, the additional giver having an additional giver payment account; and modifying the policy according to the additional giver such that second money is transferred among the respective giver payment accounts of the new group of givers to accommodate the additional giver. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the method is practiced by a group giving service. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The method of claim 7, further comprising, after the second time, receiving social networking data amongst the group of givers such that the group of givers use the group giving service to share at least one of video, images, text and audio. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising, after the second time, receiving an identification of a gift recipient. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises receiving social networking data from the gift recipient. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The method of claim 10, further comprising, transferring the group of givers and the gift recipient to a social networking service. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the policy persists after a purchase of the gift though a time period covering potential refunds from the purchase, wherein if a refund occurs after the second time, the method further comprises managing a transfer of funds back to at least one respective giver payment account according to the policy. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the gift is offered for sale at an auction and wherein the policy further manages bidding on the gift based on committed money from the group of givers, the method further comprising: automatically bidding on the gift at the auction according to the policy based on the committed money from the group of givers; and if the bidding yields a winning bid, then the transferring comprises transferring the money from the at least one respective giver payment account in an amount sufficient to cover a cost of a winning bid for the gift. ### Claim 14 A system comprising: a processor; a control engine; an intelligent network engine; a central server; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising: identifying, at a first time and via a processor and the control engine, a group of givers, each giver of the group of givers having a respective giver payment account, wherein each respective giver payment account is independent of and has no control over other giver payment accounts of the group of givers, and wherein each respective giver payment account exists prior to the first time; identifying, through a user interface and by the control engine via a processor, a gift credit associated with a gift; establishing, via a processor and a policy control entity, a policy, stored at the central server, being at least in part giver defined and associated with managing a transfer of money according to the gift credit from at least one respective giver payment account to a buyer payment account of a buyer to cover at least a portion of the gift cost, wherein the buyer payment account is an open loop account that existed prior to the first time; transmitting, by the control engine via a processor, an electronic notice to a device of the buyer, the notice being linked to the buyer payment account; monitoring, by a intelligent network engine remote from the control engine and at a second time which is later than the first time, purchases using the buyer payment account to identify a qualifying purchase according to the policy; and based on the qualifying purchase, transferring, by the control engine via a processor, at least a portion of the gift credit from each of the at least one respective giver payment account to the buyer payment account according to the policy. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, wherein identifying the gift credit further comprises determining that the buyer has purchased the gift using the buyer payment account. ### Claim 16 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, wherein identifying the gift credit further comprises receiving from the buyer an identification of at least one of the gift credit and a gift description. ### Claim 17 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, further comprising transferring money from each respective registered giver payment account to a merchant account to pay the gift credit, the merchant account being associated with a merchant offering the gift for sale. ### Claim 18 (depends on 15) The system of claim 15, further comprising transferring money from each respective registered giver payment account, except the buyer payment account, to the buyer payment account, such that the buyer payment account is reimbursed for at least a portion of the gift cost. ### Claim 19 A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising: identifying, at a first time and via a processor and a control engine, a group of givers, each giver of the group of givers having a respective giver payment account, wherein each respective giver payment account is independent of and has no control over other giver payment accounts of the group of givers, and wherein each respective giver payment account exists prior to the first time; identifying, through a user interface and by the control engine via a processor, a gift credit associated with a gift; establishing, via a processor and a policy control entity, a policy, stored at a central server, being at least in part giver defined and associated with managing a transfer of money according to the gift credit from at least one respective giver payment account to a buyer payment account of a buyer to cover at least a portion of the gift cost, wherein the buyer payment account is an open loop account that existed prior to the first time; transmitting, by the control engine via a processor, an electronic notice to a device of the buyer, the notice being linked to the buyer payment account; monitoring, by a intelligent network engine remote from the control engine and at a second time which is later than the first time, purchases using the buyer payment account to identify a qualifying purchase according to the policy; and based on the qualifying purchase, transferring, by the control engine via a processor, at least a portion of the gift credit from each of the at least one respective giver payment account to the buyer payment account according to the policy. ### Claim 20 (depends on 19) The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein after identifying, at the first time, the group of givers, the instructions further comprise: adding an additional giver to the group of givers, yielding a new group of givers, the additional giver having an additional giver payment account; and modifying the policy according to the additional giver such that second money is transferred among the respective giver accounts of the new group of givers to accommodate the additional giver.