Apple Wins Patent For "iWallet"

redletterdave writes "Apple won a major patent for its 'iWallet' technology, which is a digital system that uses near-field communication (NFC) technology to complete credit card transactions and manage subsidiary financial accounts directly on your iPhone. On the home screen for iWallet, users can see their entire credit card profiles, statements, messages from their banks, and even adjust preferences or add additional cards. Within preferences, users can schedule credit card payments and set parental controls on their children, which allows kids to use their iPhones as wallets but limits the extent to which they can use it. Users can track their payments and statements within the iTunes billing system, which keeps the credit card information safe and secure."

Comments

lame

[Anonymous Coward]

Once again, another lame patent blocking innovation

Re:lame

[dimeglio]

Doesn't sound like it. They just patented "a way" of using NFC. Should be simple enough to find another way.

More like iExtortion

[bit trollent]

Google has had an electronic NFC based wallet in the market for almost a year now.

I assume now that Apple has patented a technology that Google developed, they will extort Google to pay them for them for writing software hadn't even developed yet.

At least now that Steve Jobs is dead, Apple is willing to license patents to Google instead of just trying to sue them into extinction.

Somebody should congratulate Apple on becoming more evil than Microsoft.

Re:More like iExtortion

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh fuck that noise. Just because a game is flawed doesn't mean everyone has to exploit it.

Re:More like iExtortion

[NotQuiteReal]

Why would you even play a game you hate?

Re:More like iExtortion

[russotto]

Why would you even play a game you hate?

Because it's the only game in town.

Another one bites the dust

[Chemisor]

Great. Here's another technology that nobody will be allowed to use for the next 20 years.

Apple, anti-competition master.

[Microlith]

And if you've ever wondered why Japan and Europe have had things like this for ages but we're just now seeing a glimmer of it here, it's because of stuff like this. No one ever gets ahead without someone tossing a landmine in your path and asking for their pound of flesh.

I see that the site actually useful for linking, Patently Apple, is getting their monopoly fetish on. From the sounds of things, they've managed to patent the entire concept out from under everyone else. They've managed to claim ownership over the concept of configuring accounts and placing various transaction rules on them.

So no one else can do that without Apple attacking them. I can't wait to have the entirety of NFC payments reserved exclusively to Apple devices, or Apple demanding exorbitant per-device fees for the ability to do so.

Re:Apple, anti-competition master.

[Kagetsuki]

Posting because I tried to mod you "informative" but accidentally hit "redundant". Sorry.

But yes, THIS. The origin of the technology is "FeliCa" which started development in 1988 and was released in 1994. At this point here in Japan I have my train pass and cash on my phone and IC based systems are used in so many places now I could basically get by with nothing but my phone and drivers license.

New disorder

[WillyWanker]

iDisgust

A severe form of dyspepsia triggered by any mention of the tech company Apple, particularly in regard to their wanton abuse of the patent and legal systems.

Re:New disorder

[MacGyver2210]

I normally wouldn't reply to an AC, but this pissed me off.

This is exactly the type of thing Apple would brainwash you into believing: that people aren't sick of their shit.

Welcome to reality. Step outside the distortion field for one second and you'll see how truly asinine and annoying it is when Apple, Google, MS, or any of those tech giants squash advancement for another, purely out of greed. Lately, Apple has been by far the worst. They reach out and patent technologies that other companies are well into developing, which they probably would have already had patents for - except they are normal, rational people who don't think someone is going to patent such a broad-sweeping commonplace item.

Nobody in their right mind would go after a 'slide to unlock' patent, the words 'AppStore', or patenting RFID(basically) all over again. There has been a slide-lock device somewhere on my house since I was born 30 years ago. I have no doubt there is a patent somewhere for the hardware version, and it has been around for at least a hundred years. How's that for prior art? RFID has been around since at least the late 1980s.

I'm surprised it is allowed to continue as it is completely anticompetitive to patent such vague concepts without any actual R&D and with (literally) tons of prior art.

Re:The core problem with the digital wallet...

[jo_ham]

*loses wallet*
"Hello [$Bank]? Yes, I lost my wallet, can you cancel my card and send me a new one? A few days and it will arrive in the mail? Excellent!"

*loses phone*
*logs into Apple ID from any computer*
*cancels card link to lost/stolen phone*
*connects card to new phone*
*continues life as normal, with minimum disruption to card access*

This doesn't even need to be about Apple - NFC payments and "electronic wallets" are the future

Re:Just one thing. . .

[mark-t]

Look at this way.

iPhone = Luxury item. Expensive.

Wallet = Necessary item. Cheap to replace.

If you combine them into one thing, you end up with a necessary item that costs a lot to replace. This is not a good thing.