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04/9 GPay: Google's SMS Payment US Patent

Category: Mobile Payment By editor at 15:00

Google in February 2006 filed a patent with the US Patent office describing a text message system, also referred to as “GPay” throughout the document. The patent was published last Thursday, describing an online payment system reminiscent of PayPal and Google Checkout, but mobile-enabled. The abstract says the patent includes:

A server receiving an SMS from a payer containing a payment request for a specific amount (sent by some independent device),

parsing the SMS to find out what value the payer account should be debited for, and

crediting the payee account (independent of the server system) with that specified amount.

Comments

Alessandro - alessandro.galetto [at] dotdust.com - http://www.dotdust.com
2007-09-04 17:55:54

Sometimes I wonder if the US patent system do really works.

Actually it's good for Google to be able to patent such a thing but as I can read on the US Patent and & Trademark Office web site it does not seem to be a revolution.

I am starting to think that innovation will have to pay more money to lawyers checking for patent infringements than to their r&d departments.

By the way, aren't premium SMSs ifringing this patent now?

Roger - http://id.kaywa.com/roger
2007-09-04 18:19:25

I agree - patents like this one do not make much sense. I ask myself what Paypal says to this. They have mobile payment by SMS for some time now.

Malcolm - malcolm.ong [at] gmail.com
2007-11-16 00:36:53

and this idea has already been implemented in places like Japan!