“System and Process for Controlling and Verifying Transactions” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20230125407): Patent Application

2023 MAY 17 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventor Sundharadas, Renjit (San Diego, CA, US), filed on October 12, 2022, was made available online on April 27, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application has not been assigned to a company or institution.

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “There are approximately 34 million smokers in the United States and countless other millions across the globe. 70% of smokers in the US would like to quit but are unable to given the addictive nature of nicotine products. Just as the availability of food contributes to obesity, the ability to purchase tobacco products allows a person to easily relapse.

“Consumption of nicotine products and excessive alcohol consumption creates a burden on the healthcare system, which affects both the consumer and other parties. For example, use of tobacco products can interfere with spinal fusion surgery success. Healthcare costs are increased for everyone as the healthcare system becomes burdened with patients who have diseases or accidents that could have been avoided.

“In addition to burdening the healthcare system, excessive consumption of alcohol and use of nicotine products create an insurance burden that can result in higher costs for health and life insurance, and, in the case of alcohol consumption, auto insurance.

“In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide a tool for making relapse difficult for a person seeking to overcome an addiction.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “Disclosed is a system and process for controlling and verifying transactions. A central registry includes one or more servers configured to retrieve and store registration information in a database. Registration terminals in communication with the central registry allow for registration of a participant in a program to track and limit consumption. Point-of-sale terminals communicate with the central registry to request authorization for a purchase. In an authorization request, the point-of-sale terminal communicates the identity of the prospective purchaser to the central registry, which in turn attempts to match the purchaser to a registered participant. In the case of a match, the central registry looks up the participant’s purchase restrictions, and if the participant is restricted from a product or service that is being purchased, the central registry refuses authorization to complete the purchase, and the registered participant is prevented from purchasing the product or service.

“In using the system, registered quitters of tobacco products register and as part of the registration they are not able to purchase tobacco products, or, for quitters whose use is only occasional, are limited in purchasing tobacco products. With the whole temptation of being able to buy tobacco now gone, they are much more likely to successfully quit. The time period for such a restriction can be any length but in most cases is at least one year to a person’s whole lifetime. In some embodiments, when someone wants to deregister as a non-user there is a waiting period so that they are forced to reconsider. This waiting period also makes sense because if someone can just on the spur of the moment exit the commitment it wouldn’t be as beneficial with regards to reducing substance use. It also applies to other tobacco products such as chewing tobacco, vapes, e-cigarettes as well as any related product. In use, vendors scan identification (identifying information) of the purchaser or person who enters venues where such products are sold and deny purchase of these substances to registered quitters. For low users the system keeps track of the purchases and limited purchases are allowed. These limitations vary in types such as cigarettes vs. vaping, as well as quantity.

“The system also offers benefits to insurers, especially auto, health and life insurers, and provides a venue for people to justify lower rates by clearly being limited by their abilities to purchase tobacco or alcohol products. At this point many tobacco users lie on their health insurance applications. Also, certain medical indications such as asthma and spinal fusion can motivate the limitation of quantities are limited or prohibition of purchase of tobacco products. For example, the system enables asthmatics to have tobacco restricted or taxed to prevent ER visits and spinal fusion patients to have tobacco purchases prohibited as tobacco use interferes with spinal fusion surgery success. Some embodiments implement reporting of purchases to insurers, and it is reasonable to restrict certain people in this type of system if they are receiving insured care in order to preserve good clinical outcomes. Some embodiments facilitate the attachment of taxes and debts such as unpaid taxes or school lunch fees. Taxes can also be progressive and thus help limit the volume of purchases as well as resale. For example, in an exemplary preferred embodiment, someone who smokes or drinks pays a progressively higher tax.

“Regarding alcohol, the system enables venues to restrict entry from persons convicted of alcohol related crimes such as DWI, public intoxication, or other offenses in order to limit liability. Some embodiments of the system show a reason for the determination of entry or any other decision, while other embodiments withhold that information. In some cases, Alcohol is allowed in limited quantities for purchase for those detoxifying so that they don’t go into alcohol withdrawal. Eventually alcoholics who are taken off of alcohol can be prohibited from buying alcohol which would also reduce the liability of those selling alcohol. This also improves the health and economic condition of the alcoholic. Such information is useful for auto insurers when amounts of alcohol purchase are shared with them. It can also be used by those selling alcohol (in retail or venue locations) in real time to restrict to some extent the overuse of alcohol. Sellers of alcohol have a liability if they sell to someone who is involved in a drunk driving incident. Thus, preferred embodiments of the system have the capability of notifying the seller if the patient has had a DUI or a predetermined amount of alcohol and thus restrict entry or sales of alcohol. Finally, those that wish to discontinue or limit the use of alcohol have options. Prohibition or limitation of alcohol purchase can be used in exchange for reinstating driving privileges. In other words, as a condition of restoration of a driver’s license or any other objective the person agrees to register as a non-user or limited user. Additionally, tracking of purchases is done in real time as an aid in determining if alcohol should be sold or dispensed. In some embodiments, one can link either a designated driver or ride sharing/taxi service to the consumption of alcohol in restricted persons. In such cases money could be allocated towards a ride home for those consuming alcohol. This would be especially relevant for bars or other venues that sell alcohol. A real time system helps to limit consumption of alcohol in real time to reduce DWI. Studies have affirmed that drinking outside the home correlates to higher rates of drinking and driving. Some preferred embodiments of the system are capable of restricting alcohol based on the time of the day. Twenty nine percent of DWI drivers are repeat offenders. Such a real time system is capable of limiting drinks for those who do not have some designated ride home. Some embodiments are populated with height, weight and other factors, which are used to determine the drink limits. As parts of legal settlements, a person can be prohibited from using alcohol and have to turn over whatever stock they have. Also, one can be warned about excessive use of alcohol or tobacco. Vaccine or other information may be verified by identification or an identifier. This includes information about the individual and relatives of the individual. For example, and adult’s identification can be used to verify vaccination of children or others in the residency.

“Since a system like this tracks use, a person’s alcohol intake can be tracked over multiple locations over time. Preferred embodiments have real time usage on a daily basis to prevent DUI or other consequences. The tracking of usage allows society to intervene in a person’s life to help turn it around before the person reaches rock bottom.

“The fact that a waiting period for restarting use exists helps keep the person off of a tobacco, alcohol, gambling or other addictive behavior. In preferred embodiments, the restarting criteria is not hard-coded, but allows variables to be applied. For example, one can require a relative, or responsible party to agree for the person to restart use. This is useful for alcohol or gambling addiction. The responsible party could be a relative, court/legal body, or healthcare professional.

“Health care or other assistance may require participation in such a program. A friend or relative of a person who is receiving help may require them to be part of a quitter program in exchange for the aid offered. They may also be part of a required process to exit the system which makes the agreement compelling and increases the likelihood that people will offer assistance.

“Some exemplary uses of the disclosed system include the following:

“A person who desires to quit smoking visits a health care professional or other point of service. There, they are set up to be a registered quitter and can no longer buy tobacco or related products. There can be a start date in the future for this with purchases being limited up until that start date. Ideally the start date/time would be immediate. They sign up to be a registered quitter for a period of time up to a lifetime commitment. This time period may expire but preferred embodiments of the system include an option for it to auto-renew at any time. For example, one signs up to be a quitter for 12 months, but at month 6, the quit date is automatically extended 6 months. Any permutation of this extension is facilitated by the system. The use or tobacco paraphernalia can be limited or banned for the individual using this system.

“The person wanting to exit the system has a waiting period of any variable time, configured at registration. So, if they wanted to exit the system they would go to a point of service and then they could exit the system with a waiting period such as 1-3 months and/or a monetary fee. This waiting period makes the commitment to quit more serious as they can’t just get off the system immediately which improves the effectiveness of the system. Points of service include health care locations, sales of tobacco locations, or any other location able to process this request. It could also occur when someone signs up for healthcare coverage. Someone who does not smoke can sign up as a registered quitter and that information is provided to health insurance carriers for lower rates.”

There is additional summary information. Please visit full patent to read further.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for controlling and verifying transactions, comprising: one or more networks; one or more central registries; and one or more point-of-sale (POS) terminals, wherein the one or more POS terminals are configured to communicate with a central registry of the one or more central registries through a network of the one or more networks, send data corresponding to a registered participant to the central registry, request authorization for a transaction to be made to the registered participant, and deny the sale if the authorization is denied.

“2. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 1, further comprising means for selecting a designated driver from among a group of registered participants.

“3. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 2, wherein the one or more central registries are configured to deny authorization for a sale of alcoholic beverages to each registered participant of the group of registered participants until the designated driver is selected.

“4. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 3, wherein the one or more central registries are configured to authorize the sale of alcoholic beverages to all registered participants of the group of registered participants except the designated driver when a designated driver is selected.

“5. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 1, wherein the one or more central registries comprise a database associating prohibited and limited products and services with registered participants.

“6. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 5, wherein the central registries are configured to deny the authorization if the sale comprises a prohibited product or a prohibited service associated with the registered participant and provide a limited authorization if the sale comprises a limited product or a limited service associated with the registered participant.

“7. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 6, further comprising one or more registration terminals configured to communicate with a central registry of the one or more central registries through a network of the one or more networks, wherein the central registry is configured to receive information for a new participant and a new list of prohibited products and services from a registration terminal of the one or more registration terminals, and wherein the central registry is configured to add new entries to the database to associate the new participant with the prohibited products and services of the new list of prohibited products and services.

“8. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 7, wherein the database further associates surcharged products with the registered participants, and wherein the POS terminals are configured to add a surcharge when the sale comprises a surcharged product associated with the registered participant.

“9. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 7, wherein the registration terminals are further configured to receive updates to the prohibited and limited products and services associated with a registered participant and communicate the updates to a central registry of the one or more central registries, and wherein the central registry is configured to store the updates in the database.

“10. A method for controlling and verifying transactions, comprising the steps of: providing one or more networks; providing one or more central registries; receiving identification information; sending the identification information to the central registry; receiving product information; sending the product information to a central registry of the one or more central registries; receiving a response from the central registry; and refusing transaction of a product if the response from the central registry comprises a denial of authorization to transact.

“11. The method for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 10, further comprising the step of adding a surcharge if the response from the central registry comprises a surcharge requirement.

“12. The method of controlling and verifying transactions of claim 10, further comprising the step of notifying the central registry of a completed transaction.

“13. The method of controlling and verifying transactions of claim 10, wherein the step of receiving product information comprises scanning a barcode, QR code, or other printed code.

“14. The method of controlling and verifying transactions of claim 10, wherein the step of receiving identification information comprises scanning an identification card or code based on an identification card.

“15. The method of controlling and verifying transactions of claim 10, wherein the identification card is scanned with a magnetic stripe reader or chip reader.

“16. A system for controlling and verifying transactions, comprising: one or more networks; one or more central registries, each central registry comprising: a database comprising a list of registered participants, one or more registration servers, and one or more verification servers; and one or more point-of-sale (POS) terminals, wherein each POS terminal of the one or more POS terminals is configured to communicate with a verification server through the network, send data corresponding to a registered participant of the registered participants to the verification server, request authorization for a transaction to be made to the registered participant, deny the transaction if the authorization is denied, and limit the transaction if a limited authorization is provided.

“17. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 16, wherein the database associates a list of prohibited and limited products and services with each registered participant of the registered participants.

“18. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 17, wherein the verification server is configured to deny the authorization if the transaction comprises a prohibited product or a prohibited service from the list of prohibited and limited products and services associated with the registered participant and to provide a limited authorization if the transaction comprises a limited product or a limited service from the list of prohibited and limited products and services associated with the registered participant.

“19. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 18, further comprising one or more registration terminals, each registration terminal configured to communicate with a registration server through the network, wherein the registration server is configured to receive information for a new participant, a new list of prohibited products and services, and a new list of limited products and services from a registration terminal of the one or more registration terminals, and wherein the registration server is configured to the new participant to the list of registered participants and associate the new list of prohibited products and services and the new list of limited products and services with the new participant.

“20. The system for controlling and verifying transactions of claim 19, wherein the registration terminals are further configured to receive updates to the prohibited products and services associated with a registered participant of the list of registered participants and communicate the updates to the registration server, and wherein the registration server is configured to store the updates in the database.

“21. The system of controlling and verifying transactions of claim 19, wherein the system is configured to adjust insurance rates and coverage for insurance comprising health, life, vehicle, personal injury, property, general, liability, disability, home owners, long term care, or umbrella insurance.

“22. The system of controlling and verifying transaction of claim 19, wherein the system is configured to control use of substances to facilitate overcoming tobacco addiction, alcohol addiction, marijuana addiction, gambling addiction, video game addiction, internet addiction, medication dependency, diet-based addictions and behaviors or adhere to any agreement thereof.”

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Sundharadas, Renjit. System and Process for Controlling and Verifying Transactions. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230125407, filed October 12, 2022 and posted April 27, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230125407)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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