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US 9,070,122 B1Granted
Host-managed gift card program
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorsMichal J. Geller, Brian Randolph Williams
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A host-managed gift card program may enable merchants to offer and redeem gift cards without integrating a gift card program with a point of sale (POS) system used by the merchant. The merchant may rely on a host, at least in part, to issue gift cards, manage a ledger, assist in redemption of gift cards when the cards are redeemed at the merchant's location, and perform other gift card-related tasks for the merchant.
Claims20
One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:
- determining one or more parameters used by an application to determine whether to redeem a gift card, the one or more parameters being based at least in part on a location of a computing device or a time of use of the computing device, the computing device being configured to facilitate redemption of the gift card through interaction with one or more servers of a host;
- and
- determining that the one or more parameters are satisfied by determining one of the time of use is within a predetermined time range or the location of the computing device is within a threshold distance of a predetermined location, and, in response to the determining that the one or more parameters are satisfied:
- causing a secure request to be transmitted to the host that includes an identifier of the gift card and a transaction amount to deduct from the gift card;
- and
- receiving from the host a response that includes at least one of an indication of an availability of the transaction amount or an indication of a balance of the gift card.
3 more elements
A computing system comprising:
- one or more hardware processors;
- and
- one or more memories storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more hardware processors, cause the computing system to, at least:
- determine one or more parameters used by an application to determine whether to redeem a gift card, the one or more parameters being based at least in part on a location of a computing device or a time of use of the computing device, the computing device being configured to facilitate redemption of the gift card through interaction with one or more servers of a host;
- and
- determine that the one or more parameters are satisfied by determining one of the time of use is within a predetermined time range or the location of the computing device is within a threshold distance of a predetermined location, and, in response to the determining that the one or more parameters are satisfied:
- cause a secure request to be transmitted to the host that includes a transaction amount to deduct from the gift card and one or more of a machine-readable code associated with the gift card, an image of at least a portion of the gift card, or an identifier associated with the gift card;
- and
- receive from the host a response that includes at least one of an indication of an availability of the transaction amount or an indication of a balance of the gift card.
6 more elements
A method comprising:
- determining, by at least one or more computing devices, one or more parameters used by an application to determine whether to redeem a gift card, the one or more parameters being based at least in part on a location of a computing device or a time of use of the computing device, the computing device being configured to facilitate redemption of the gift card through interaction with one or more servers of a host;
- and
- determining, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, that the one or more parameters are satisfied by determining one of the time of use is within a predetermined time range or the location of the computing device is within a threshold distance of a predetermined location, and, in response to the determining that the one or more parameters are satisfied:
- causing, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, a secure request to be transmitted to the host that includes a transaction amount to deduct from the gift card and one or more of a machine-readable code associated with the gift card, an image of at least a portion of the gift card, or an identifier associated with the gift card;
- and
- receiving, by at least one of the one or more computing devices, from the host a response that includes at least one of an indication of an availability of the transaction amount or an indication of a balance of the gift card.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.