

Apple to patent a mobile-based method and system to transfer money - ggurgone
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=10&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=%28apple.AS.+AND+20130606.PD.%29&OS=An/apple+and+pd/6/06/2013&RS=%28AN/apple+AND+PD/20130606%29

======
jforte
I don't see how this satisfies the inventive-step criteria needed for a
patent. Any IT professional with the money to spend could whip up something
like this.

------
d4nt
Sounds exactly like Droplet ([http://dropletpay.com](http://dropletpay.com))
which is already live in the UK.

~~~
dirtyaura
The patent has been originally filed in UK in 2008.

Apple bought a few patents by two Finnish inventors (patent trolls?) a couple
of years ago. This seems to be one of them. I don't know if they bought these
patents directly or as a part of huge portfolio.

~~~
thinkcomp
Janne Aaltonen's Patents and Appications:
[http://www.plainsite.org/flashlight/index.html?id=2228089&ta...](http://www.plainsite.org/flashlight/index.html?id=2228089&table=patents)

The USPTO doesn't have any assignment data for this particular publication
yet, but this assignment looks pretty similar (same title):
[http://www.plainsite.org/flashlight/patentassignment.html?id...](http://www.plainsite.org/flashlight/patentassignment.html?id=4677999)

Application No. 12/664,079, which that assignment is based upon, and which
Apple, Inc. also owns ("13/753,189 filed on 01-29-2013 which is Pending claims
the benefit of 12/664,079"), has been pending in the USPTO's system since
December, 2009. A final rejection was issued September 7, 2012, after which a
Request for Continued Examination (RCE) was filed, and another non-final
rejection was issued May 31, 2013. Pretty typical path for the USPTO.

I filed my mobile payments patent around the same time; it was finally granted
in March. Apple e-mailed me saying that they wanted to buy it in late April.
When they called to follow up they told me they'd contacted me in error. Oops.
I guess they're placing their bets on this extremely vague application which
should have zero chance of being granted instead?

------
stormbrew
It's new because it's on a phone, ya see.

------
sheng
This is prior art:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet)

You're sending money to your mobile phone and it's stored there via the
downloaded block chain.

------
barredo
The most notorious thing about this is that money could be 'sponsored' (read:
discount).

Also, what's the Foreign Application Data? It talks about a "Feb 26, 2008 GB",
does it mean it was previously filed at that date in Great Britain?

------
rednotebook
[http://www.ipo.gov.uk/p-ipsum/Case/ApplicationNumber/GB08034...](http://www.ipo.gov.uk/p-ipsum/Case/ApplicationNumber/GB0803468.8)

Original British filing

------
AndrewWorsnop
What about the massive mobile money networks in Africa?

