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:
Aug. 08, 2006
Filed:
May. 26, 2004
Kevin Sullivan, Wilmington, DE (US);
Kevin Sullivan, Wilmington, DE (US);
Bank One, Delaware, National Association, Wilmington, DE (US);
Abstract
The present invention comprises an apparatus and method for a card payment instrument providing that a share of program profits above a pre-designated level is returned to participating consumers at pre-designated intervals such as annually. Customers respond to an offer to participate in the mutual benefit program. After admission to the program, the card issuer tracks the performance according to the desired financial metric for the participating cardholders. At certain intervals, such as yearly, the card issuer reports out the financial performance for the period. If the financial performance exceeded the pre-designated threshold performance, then returns are distributed to participating cardholders according to a share methodology. The share methodology can provide that returns are allocated among participating cardholders according to various criteria, such as based on spending volume, finance charges, and so forth.