The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 29, 1997
Filed:
Jan. 29, 1996
Applicant:
Inventors:
William J Veeneman, Minneapolis, MN (US);
Phillip R Brooks, Eagan, MN (US);
Assignee:
The Gift Certificate Center, Inc., Minneapolis, MN (US);
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
36447905 ; 36447907 ; 36447902 ; 235381 ; 395217 ; 395224 ;
Abstract
A gift certificate dispensing device having an internal machine-readable indicia reader is disclosed for printing and dispensing a certificate either based upon payment by a user or upon the insertion of a pre-paid form into a slot in communication with the scanner. A plurality of gift certificate dispensing devices can be connected in a network under the control of a central processing unit. The central processing unit identifies and keeps track of all the certificates within the network by way of indicia disposed on the certificates, which are scanned by each device as they are dispensed therefrom.