# US 10,504,140 B2 · Method and system for providing a digital gift card

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- Number: US 10,504,140 B2
- Document ID: US10504140B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 15/360,280
- Filed: 2016-11-23
- Published: 2017-06-08
- Granted: 2019-12-10
- Earliest claimed: 2015-12-02
- Assignees: Mastercard International Incorporated
- Applicants: Mastercard International Incorporated
- Inventors: Pravin Parekh
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10504140B2

## CPC

- G06Q 30/0253: {During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions}
- G06Q 10/42: Determination of affinities or common interests between users
- G06Q 20/3278: {RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices}
- G06Q 20/351: {Virtual cards}
- G06Q 20/3558: {Preliminary personalisation for transfer to user}
- G06Q 20/36: using electronic wallets or electronic money safes
- G06Q 20/387: {Payment using discounts or coupons (relating to marketing G06Q30/02)}
- G06Q 30/0257: {User requested}
- G06Q 30/0269: {based on user profile or attribute}
- G06Q 20/326: {Payment applications installed on the mobile devices}
- 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

A method of providing a digital gift card to a beneficiary, the method including, in one or more electronic processing devices: receiving, from a digital wallet of an individual, a request to create a digital gift card including information indicative of at least one of: an occasion associated with the digital gift card and beneficiary information associated with the beneficiary; determining, based on at least one of the occasion and the beneficiary information, a plurality of gift card offers offered by respective merchants; presenting, from the digital wallet, the plurality of gift card offers; receiving, from the digital wallet, an indication of a selected gift card offer; processing a payment from the digital wallet to the merchant offering the selected gift card offer; and sending a digital gift card notification for the selected gift card offer to the beneficiary, to thereby allow the beneficiary to obtain and redeem it.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method of providing a digital gift card to a beneficiary, the method including, in one or more electronic processing devices:
a) receiving, from a digital wallet of an individual, a request to create a digital gift card including information indicative of at least one of:
i) an occasion associated with the digital gift card; and,
ii) beneficiary information associated with the beneficiary;
b) determining, based on at least one of the occasion and the beneficiary information, a plurality of gift card offers offered by respective merchants, wherein the respective merchants are identified from data obtained through at least a social media feed of the beneficiary, the data being associated with one or more merchants in the social media feed or related merchants of the one or more merchants in the social media feed;
c) presenting to the individual, from the digital wallet via a real-time decision engine, the plurality of gift card offers using a rules-based analysis or predictive analysis to arrange the gift card offers in an order of relevance determined from at least one of the social media feed or the social media information of the beneficiary;
d) receiving, from the digital wallet, an indication of a selected gift card offer;
e) processing a payment dependent on the information from the digital wallet to the merchant offering the selected gift card offer; and,
f) sending a digital gift card notification for the selected gift card offer to the beneficiary, to thereby allow the beneficiary to obtain the digital gift card in a digital wallet of the beneficiary and redeem the digital gift card with the merchant using the digital wallet of the beneficiary.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the plurality of gift card offers based on both the occasion and the beneficiary information.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, wherein the beneficiary information includes at least one of:
a) an age group of the beneficiary;
b) a gender of the beneficiary;
c) a location of the beneficiary; and,
d) contact details of the beneficiary.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

A method according to claim 3, wherein the contact details include at least one of:
a) a mobile telephone number of the beneficiary;
b) an email address of the beneficiary; and,
c) a social network account name associated with the beneficiary.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

A method according to claim 3, further comprising obtaining the beneficiary information by:
a) receiving, from the digital wallet, contact details of the beneficiary;
b) identifying the beneficiary digital wallet of the beneficiary based on the contact details; and,
c) obtaining the beneficiary information from the beneficiary digital wallet.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, further comprising obtaining the beneficiary information by having the individual manually enter the beneficiary information from the digital wallet.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, further comprising:
a) receiving, from the digital wallet, a value for the digital gift card; and,
b) presenting the gift card offers having the received value.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, further comprising:
a) receiving, from the digital wallet, a value range for the digital gift card; and,
b) presenting the gift card offers with values within the received value range.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, further comprising obtaining the occasion by:
a) presenting, from the digital wallet, a plurality of occasion options; and,
b) receiving, from the digital wallet, a selection of one of the occasion options.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, further comprising:
a) using the beneficiary information to access social network information and the social media feed associated with the beneficiary; and,
b) determining the one or more gift card offers based on at least some of the social network information or the social media feed.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1 further comprising determining the one or more gift card offers by selecting gift card offers offered by participating merchants.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, further comprising presenting the gift card offers offered by the one or merchants in an order based on at least one of:
a) whether a merchant is a preferred merchant; and,
b) a degree of relevance to the beneficiary determined based on the beneficiary information.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the gift card offers includes a discount offer in which a payment amount required for the gift card offer is less than a redemption value for the gift card offer.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, further comprising:
a) receiving, from the digital wallet, personalisation options; and
b) generating the digital gift card notification based on the personalisation options.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

A method according to claim 14, further comprising:
a) presenting, from the digital wallet, a plurality of gift card templates relevant to the occasion;
b) receiving, from the digital wallet, an indication of a selected gift card template; and,
c) generating the digital gift card notification in accordance with the selected gift card template.

### Claim 16 (depends on 14)

A method according to claim 14, further comprising:
a) receiving, from the digital wallet, a personalised message; and,
b) generating the digital gift card notification including the personalised message.

### Claim 17 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, further comprising generating the digital gift card notification including authentication information for the digital gift card.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

A method according to claim 17, further comprising obtaining the authentication information by having the individual manually enter the authentication information from the digital wallet.

### Claim 19 (depends on 17)

A method according to claim 17, further comprising, after processing the payment:
a) receiving, from the merchant offering the selected gift card offer, a unique gift card code; and,
b) associating the unique gift card code with the authentication information and at least some of the beneficiary information.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

A method according to claim 19, further comprising:
a) receiving, from the digital wallet of the beneficiary:
i) a request to obtain the digital gift card; and,
ii) authentication information for the digital gift card;
b) authenticating the digital gift card using the authentication information; and,
c) providing the digital gift card in the digital wallet of the beneficiary.

### Claim 21 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, further comprising, after redeeming the digital gift card, sending a notification to the individual that the beneficiary has redeemed the digital gift card on a particular date and at a particular merchant/location.

### Claim 22 (depends on 1)

A method according to claim 1, wherein the rules-based approach or predictive analysis used in arranging the gift card offers further comprises:
accessing additional beneficiary information stored in a digital wallet of the beneficiary to determine spending habits, preferred merchants, or purchased goods or services; and
ranking the gift card offers based on a beneficiary's preference of one or more of products, services, or merchants.

### Claim 23

A system for providing a digital gift card to a beneficiary, the system including one or more electronic processing devices configured to:
a) receive, from a digital wallet of an individual, a request to create a digital gift card including information indicative of at least one of:
i) an occasion associated with the digital gift card; and,
ii) beneficiary information associated with the beneficiary;
b) determine, based on at least one of the occasion and the beneficiary information, a plurality of gift card offers offered by respective merchants, wherein the respective merchants are identified from data obtained through at least a social media feed of the beneficiary, the data being associated with one or more merchants identified in the social media feed or related merchants of the one or more merchants in the social media feed;
c) present, from the digital wallet by executing code to implement a real-time decision engine, using a rule-based analysis or predictive analysis to arrange the plurality of gift card offers in an order of relevance determined from at least one of the social media feed or the social media information of the beneficiary;
d) receive, from the digital wallet, an indication of a selected gift card offer;
e) process a payment from the digital wallet to the merchant offering the selected gift card offer; and,
f) send a digital gift card notification for the selected gift card offer to the beneficiary, to thereby allow the beneficiary to obtain the digital gift card in a beneficiary digital wallet of the beneficiary and redeem the digital gift card with the merchant using the beneficiary digital wallet.

### Claim 24 (depends on 23)

A system according to claim 23, wherein the one or more electronic processing devices include:
a) a user processing system for providing a user interface for the digital wallet; and,
b) a server processing system coupled to the user processing system via a communications network.

### Claim 25 (depends on 24)

A system according to claim 24, wherein the one or more electronic processing devices further include a merchant processing system coupled to the server processing system via the communications network.

### Claim 26 (depends on 25)

A system according to claim 25, wherein the server processing system is configured to send a notification to the individual that the beneficiary has redeemed the gift card on a particular date and at a particular merchant/location.

### Claim 27 (depends on 23)

A system according to claim 23, wherein in using rules-based approach or predictive analysis used in arranging the plurality of gift card offers the one or more electronic processing devices is configured to:
access additional beneficiary information stored in a digital wallet of the beneficiary to determine spending habits, preferred merchants, or purchased goods or services; and
ranking the gift card offers based on a beneficiary's preference of one or more of products, services, or merchants.