KIDDING PATENTS 2013

January 1, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSAPPARATUS, METHOD, PROGRAM AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM FOR PROVIDING GUARANTEED MINIMUM ACCUMULATED BENEFIT CONTRACT FUNDED WITH MATCHING BOND INVESTMENTS; US 8,346,576 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/4; 28 claims; assigned to Hartford Fire Insurance Company.

Relating to a guaranteed minimum accumulated benefit (GMAB) variable annuity contract management apparatus, a GMAB variable annuity contract management method, a GMAB variable annuity contract management program, and a computer-readable recording medium for recording the GMAB variable annuity contract management program, for managing a GMAB variable annuity contract.

Frip: Is anything guaranteed in a nation that is capable of creating a fiscal cliff on purpose?

FINANCIAL GADGETS; US 8,346,615 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/26.1; 27 claims; assigned to Yodlee, Inc.

Receiving financial gadgets and receiving a notification that one or more gadgets has been certified, generating a web page with an interface through which users can select gadgets, and providing the gadgets and instructions to users. Frip: Patent on providing gadgets. And the Information Age marches on.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING RECOVERY FOR VICTIMS OF CHECK FRAUD; US 8,346,637 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/35; 10 claims; assigned to Ezshield, Inc.

Relating generally to the recovery of losses associated with unauthorized use of negotiable instruments, and more particularly to a fraud protection system and method for enabling a consumer to recover losses due to forged signatures, forged endorsements, or altered information on personal checks. Frip: People still use hard-copy checks?!

MULTI-ACCOUNT CASH RECYCLING; US 8,346,640 B1; 1/1/2013; Class 705/35; 18 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Enabling a user to make deposits to or withdrawals from multiple accounts from a single device, such as a currency recycler, a depository machine, or a dispensing machine, the multiple accounts perhaps corresponding to different departments in a business or organization.

Frip: One guy puts money in, another takes it out.

TRADING ORDERS WITH DECAYING RESERVES; US 8,346,642 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/35; 29 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Receiving a trading order for a particular quantity of a trading product, the order specifying that a first portion of the particular quantity is a displayed quantity and that a second portion of the particular quantity is a reserved quantity, the trading order also specifying at least one of a decay rule, a decay interval, a decay rate, a decay quantity, and one or more conditions.

Frip: We’re all gonna decay in the end. Bummer. Or maybe not.

INTEGRATED INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH NETWORK DATAFEED AND INCREMENTAL DATABASE REFRESH; US 8,346,645 B1; 1/1/2013; Class 705/36R; 34 claims; assigned to Investedge, Inc.

Providing an investment management computer system configured to communicate with data vendors or electronic accounting systems, the system maybe including an electronic application server having logic for performing analysis of an investment portfolio including aggregating a plurality of securities in the investment portfolio by security type, portfolio monitoring, and reporting holdings of the portfolio.

Frip: They’ll know what’s in your portfolio. Will you?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LIFE INSURANCE INVESTMENT VEHICLE; US 8,346,648 B1; 1/1/2013; Class 705/36R; 16 claims; assigned to Aiolian LLP.

Relating to a donor donating a life insurance policy to a non-profit organization, one mode involving the purchase of a life insurance policy and pairing it with one or more annuity contracts on the same donor's life, the aggregate sum of the annuity premiums for the annuity contracts approximately equaling the death benefit payment amount of the purchased life insurance policy, or alternatively, the death benefit payment amount of the purchased life insurance policy exceeding the annuity premiums for the annuity contracts, and so on.

Frip: Be prepared. As you age, you start getting these pitches from your alma mater or maters.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONDUCTING COMPUTER-ASSISTED TRANSACTIONS; US 8,346,651 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to Instinet, Inc.

Receiving initial orders to buy and sell a security, matching at least a subset of the initial buy orders to at least a subset of the initial sell orders based at least on quantity, forming an order block of at least a subset of the matched orders, responsive to a threshold volume of matching orders being reached, broadcasting a crossing announcement (interchangeably referred to as a notification of cross (NOX), an indication of cross (IOX), or a block cross (BLX) alert), the NOX alert indicating a beginning of a time window during which further matching orders to buy and sell quantities of the security are presentable for inclusion in the order block, and at an end of the time window, executing the order block.

Frip: Ouch! Her NOX just bit my IOX!

HYBRID TRADING SYSTEM FOR CONCURRENTLY TRADING SECURITIES OR DERIVATIVES THROUGH BOTH ELECTRONIC AND OPEN-OUTCRY TRADING MECHANISMS; US 8,346,652 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/37; 6 claims; assigned to Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated.

Allocating orders in an exchange configured for trading by a combination of electronic and open-outcry trading mechanisms, one method permitting multiple quotes to be disseminated to the market but limiting market making to only those entities having a physical presence on the floor of the exchange, methods of enhancing the hybrid electronic and open-outcry exchange also including automatically eliminating crossed quotes and locked quotes while permitting certain orders to trade against locked quotes.

Frip: Ouch! She just locked my quote!

AUTOMATED TRADING SYSTEM FOR ROUTING AND MATCHING ORDERS; US 8,346,653 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated.

Providing an automated system for matching orders from a virtual trading crowd in an exchange configured for trading securities or derivatives, the system including an electronic trade engine operative to receive an order or a quote for a security or derivative at the exchange, the trade engine further operative to disseminate a request for a price message to a plurality of market makers quoting a class in response to receiving the order or the quote, an electronic book in communication with the electronic trade engine, a database including an allocation algorithm, and a trade processor in communication with the database, the trade processor operative to analyze and execute orders or quotes according to the allocation algorithm selected from the database.

Frip: Behind every great flow-chart patent is an algorithm.

INDEXED PAYMENT STREAM SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,346,654 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/37; 29 claims; assigned to Market Shield Capital, LLC.

Providing a common index securities fund that provides liquidity to a plurality of small business borrowers in a defined class, the method comprising providing a pool of cash from a lender to the fund, generating loans from the fund to borrowers, depositing the loans in interest-bearing accounts, providing interest from the interest bearing accounts to the lender and the borrowers, and, upon withdrawal of the loans from the interest bearing account, repaying the loans to the lender and commencing a set of one or more payments by each borrower to the fund, related to an index having a value relationship to the class.

Frip: Follow that?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING A PLATFORM FOR THE TRADE OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS; US 8,346,655 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/37; 12 claims.

Providing a server or server cluster including at least one Interfacing Server adapted to interface with a user, possibly via a distributed data network such as the internet, the Interfacing Server maybe being adapted to present to a user a trading platform, to receive from a user trade instructions, and to execute the trading instructions.

Frip: Patent Examiner meeting his quota.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING A REVERSE MORTGAGE; US 8,346,657 B1; 1/1/2013; Class 705/38; 21 claims; assigned to USAA.

Providing a reverse mortgage instrument that allows modification of an existing mortgage per predetermined circumstances, one use being to insure that deployed active duty military service members do not lose financial ground or suffer financial difficulties while deployed, either abroad in hostile military engagements or during other tours of duty.

Frip: Admirable goal, but should this sort of thing be patentable?

LINE OF CREDIT WITH PRE-AGREED LINE INCREASES; US 8,346,658 B1; 1/1/2013; Class 705/38; 11 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing for a line of credit secured by a residence in which the borrower can agree at initial closing to periodic line increases, so that a new application and re-recording are not necessary.

Frip: Paperwork reduction patent.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TWO-WAY TRANSFER OF FUNDS AND ELECTRONIC CONTENT BETWEEN SUMMA ACCOUNT USERS WITH GATHERING OF BEHAVIORAL METRICS AND MANAGEMENT OF MULTIPLE CURRENCIES AND ESCROW ACCOUNTS; US 8,346,660 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/39; 34 claims.

Creating a pre-defined electronic transactions system comprising a server in communication with a database and a computer network, the server configured to receive a request to create a pre-defined electronic transaction from a client computer via the computer network, to receive input from the client computer comprising information that at least partially defines the pre-defined electronic transaction, and to store the received information in the database.

Frip: The term “Behavioral Metrics” makes Frip uneasy.

METHOD AND SYSTEM OF CONTACTLESS INTERFACING FOR SMART CARD BANKING; US 8,346,663 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/41; 26 claims; assigned to Citicorp Development Center, Inc.

Providing a method and system of smart card banking utilizing a contactless interface to establish a communications link for bidirectional flow of data between the smart card and a banking institution, the method and system providing all the benefits of contact interface without the physical limitations of the contacts and without any significant increase in cost.

Frip: What if your smart card is dumb?

ELECTRONIC MONEY SYSTEM AND ELECTRONIC MONEY TRANSACTION METHOD; US 8,346,668 B2; 1/1/2013; Class 705/67; 25 claims; assigned to NEC Corporation (Japan).

Providing a method for preventing illegal and improper use of certificate-type electronic money, ensuring unlinkability in use of the electronic money, and enabling the illegally-used electronic money to be traced.

Frip: Is NEC Corp. talking about just yens or about all monies?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONDUCTING COMMERCE OVER A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK; US 8,346,677 B1; 1/1/2013; Class 705/346; 6 claims; assigned to Citicorp Development Center, Inc.

Relating to a system and method for using radio-based wireless devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants to conduct business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions over an electronic commerce system.

Frip: What if you don’t even use credit cards yet?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONDUCTING COMMERCE OVER A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK; US 8,346,678 B1; 1/1/2013; Class 705/346; 12 claims; assigned to Citicorp Development Center, Inc.

Relating to a system and method for using radio-based wireless devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants to conduct business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions over an electronic commerce system.

Frip: Previous patent focused on method; this one focused on machine. Patent Examiner gets credit for two patents, celebrates with a bit of alcohol.

January 8, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSMETHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR EXERCISING STOCK OPTIONS; US 8,352,340 B2; 1/8/2013; Class 705/35; 22 claims; assigned to USB AG (Switzerland).

Generally including the steps of establishing a plurality of escrow accounts including a company escrow account, a third party escrow account, and an employee escrow account, receiving notice of intent to exercise a stock option from an employee, transferring securities to satisfy the stock option exercise from the company to a company escrow account, transferring property equivalent to a third party purchase price from a third party to the third party escrow account, transferring the notice of intent to exercise a stock option to the employee escrow account, and transferring property held in the plurality of escrow accounts to the employee, the company, and the third party in accordance at least in part with the stock option.

Frip: Escrow accounts mean you don’t trust someone.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COALESCING MARKET DATA AT A NETWORK DEVICE; US 8,352,344 B2; 1/8/2013; Class 705/35; 18 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Coalescing data received from an exchange, and providing a user with the opportunity to receive fewer, but up-to-date, data updates from an exchange when duplicate prices become available or a large volume of prices becomes available suddenly, the invention being designed to conserve on bandwidth. Frip: Praise the Lord and Save the Bandwidth.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MAINTAINING TRADING ACCOUNTS; US 8,352,353 B1; 1/8/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to RealTick LLC.

Staging orders relating to a sale or purchase of securities into an execution management system, which includes a processor programmed to perform securities trading activities, storing data describing the orders in a database, which includes a neutral account, and associating, after the orders are staged into the execution management system, one or more of the orders, or portions thereof, with one or more brokers for execution. Frip: What a novel idea!

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OPTIMIZING ORDER EXECUTION; US 8,352,354 B2; 1/8/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating generally to automating execution of trades and more specifically to a method and system for automatically processing an order and applying certain models and profiles to the order.

Frip: JP trying to get itself organized after the London Whaler Incident.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR QUICK QUOTE CONFIGURATION; US 8,352,356 B2; 1/8/2013; Class 705/37; 14 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing a trader with the ability to quickly configure the quoting side of a trading tool, and in spread trading in which a user is working an order in a certain tradeable object first, allowing the user to essentially on-the-fly configure the trading tool to work a second order in another tradeable object, the first order being automatically abandoned.

Frip: Spread trading sounds slightly risqué.

METHODS OF DELIVERING PAYMENTS TO MULTIPLE PARTIES; US 8,352,361 B2; 1/8/2013; Class 705/39; 6 claims; assigned to Higher One, Inc.

Providing a method of distributing a payment of funds made payable to two or more payees, in some embodiments the method includes receiving a payment of funds made payable to two or more payees, inviting each of the two or more payees to electronically select a preferred method of funds delivery, authenticating each of the two or more payees' identity, electronically receiving the preferred method of funds delivery selected by each of the two or more payees, and delivering funds from the payment of funds to one or more of the two or more payees according to the preferred methods of funds delivery received.

Frip: Unique, eh?

FINANCIAL TRANSACTION SYSTEM WITH INTEGRATED ELECTRONIC MESSAGING, CONTROL OF MARKETING DATA, AND USER DEFINED CHARGES FOR RECEIVING MESSAGES; US 8,352,364 B2; 1/8/2013; Class 705/39; 25 claims.

Performing financial transactions between users of Summa accounts, each Summa account including an electronic messaging system that provides for crediting and debiting at least one financial account associated with each Summa account, the invention also allowing each user to define a schedule of receipt charges associated with the identities of other users to be charged as compensation for accepting delivery of their messages, the invention further allowing, with the user's permission, a record of purchases made from the Summa account to be maintained in a marketing database.

Frip: Summa, Summa, Bomumma. Summa.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FLEXIBLE PAYMENT PROCESSING; US 8,352,366 B1; 1/8/2013; Class 705/40; 22 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Receiving payment notification including a payment amount and a payment date for an identified customer, determining eligibility for flexible payment status implementing the computer processor, the determination based on the customer identity, the payment date, and a payment due date, calculating a flex accrual using the computer processor if the customer is eligible for flexible payment status, the flex accrual based on the payment amount, the payment date, and the payment due date, and communicating the flex accrual to the customer and allowing the identified customer to utilize the flex accrual without penalty by making a late payment, wherein a number of days late and number of dollars are determined by the flex accrual.

Frip: Flexible payment status. That’s moi.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR UNIVERSAL INSTANT CREDIT; US 8,352,370 B1; 1/8/2013; Class 705/44; 20 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Offering a financial instrument to a customer, the method including providing a customer with an application for a financial instrument, receiving from the customer a completed application for the financial instrument, determining whether to approve the customer for the financial instrument, transmitting a first portion of an account identifier to a merchant, and transmitting a second portion of the account identifier to the customer, the financial instrument being a credit card, a stored value card, a line of credit, and so on.

Frip: Instant credit! Cool!SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ALTERING MAIL ROUTING, MAIL PROCESSING, AND/OR MODE OF DELIVERY; US 8,352,383 B2; 1/8/2013; Class 705/332; 27 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating generally to systems and methods for creation, sending, sorting, and delivery of mail, and more importantly to altering mailing parameters, such as delivery addresses, mode of processing, or mode of delivery, based on business parameters associated with the content or nature of the mail or characteristics of the sender.

Frip: BofA, messin’ with the Post Office.

January 15, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY-BASED RISKS; US 8,355,932 B2; 1/15/2013; Class 705/4; 25 claims; assigned to Ocean Tomo LLC.

Allowing an entity to minimize or transfer its exposure to intellectual property infringement litigation liabilities by conducting pre-emptive analyses and properly allocating funds for potential royalty payments, settlement costs, infringement damages, and litigation costs, one specific embodiment of the invention being directed to system and methods of managing and transferring the risk of liabilities arising from patent infringement litigation.

Frip: See, patent trolls are not all bad. Their activities have spurred development of a whole new type of insurance.

CREDIT AND/OR DEBIT CARD SECURITY; US 8,355,969 B2; 1/15/2013; Class 705/35; 24 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing heightened debit and credit card security by issuing cards that may be void of any or some information printed on the cards providing identification of the users, account numbers associated with the cards, expiration dates for the cards, and the like. Frip: Why not just a handshake?

APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A PERIODIC AUCTION RESET SECURITIES OPTIMIZATION ENGINE; US 8,355,973 B2; 1/15/2013; Class 705/36R; 19 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Providing dynamic management of one or more portfolios of securities, in particular, portfolios of Periodic Auction Reset Securities (PARS). Frip: Use the word dynamic, get a patent.

SYSTEM, METHOD, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR ALLOCATING DIVIDENDS TO A BLOCK OF COMMON STOCK SHARES; US 8,355,977 B1; 1/15/2013; Class 705/36R; 16 claims.

Allocating dividends to stock shares, the method including creating a sub-class of a first stock share class, allocating a first percentage of a total dividend amount to a first plurality of stock shares in the first stock share class, allocating a second percentage of the total dividend amount to the second plurality of stock shares in the sub-class of the first stock share class, storing the first percentage of the total dividend and the second percentage of the total dividend in a memory device, and buying back stock shares in the first stock share class or sub-class of the first stock share class.

Frip: Huh?SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRICING AND SELLING DIGITAL GOODS; US 8,355,978 B2; 1/15/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Intertrust Technologies Corp.

Relating to systems and methods for pricing, selling, or both, goods or services using randomized sampling and other auction techniques.

Frip: Seems harmlessly enough.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MAINTAINING ANONYMITY IN A GAMING OR OTHER ENVIRONMENT; US 8,355,979 B2; 1/15/2013; Class 705/37; 37 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Providing methods and systems for maintaining anonymity in a gaming environment that include or perform the step or steps of receiving a user preference from a first user for maintaining an identity of the first user anonymous during at least one game, tracking game play involving the first user and at least one other user, receiving a request from the other user to initiate at least one game with the first user, retrieving game history data specific to the first user and the other user, retrieving at least one rule for controlling interactions between anonymous users and the other user in the gaming environment, and disposing the request to initiate the game with the first user.

Frip: This patent is definitely about something.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING ENHANCED ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR MULTIPLE BANKS; US 8,355,985 B1; 1/15/2013; Class 705/39; 26 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Providing systems and methods that deliver account management services to multiple participating financial institutions (including banks) so that they may offer to their customers interest-earning, deposit accounts without withdrawal restrictions, with enhanced deposit insurance, or both, one step being the re-allocation of customer-deposited funds among multiple financial institutions so that, for each customer, the risk of loss is not substantially increased, one aspect of the invention being the reduction of risk of loss by increasing the fraction of each customer's deposited funds covered by FDIC deposit insurance.

Frip: Gaming the poor ol’ FDIC.January 22, 2013

PATENT COMMENTS

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING DATA RELATED TO LONGEVITY INSURANCE; US 8,359,212 B2; 1/22/2013; Class 705/4; 20 claims; assigned to Hartford Fire Insurance Company.

Providing a novel fixed individual deferred annuity guarantying an individual or individuals a predetermined income starting at a specified time in the future, the annuity further comprising a facility care benefit rider that can be utilized to accelerate a purchaser's access and enhance the predetermined income upon the occurrence of one or more specified events.

Frip: One or more specified events? Help, I’ve fallen and can’t get up.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADMINISTERING TELEMATICS BASED REINSURANCE POOLS; US 8,359,213 B2; 1/22/2013; Class 705/4; 15 claims; assigned to Hartford Fire Insurance Company.

Administering telematics-based reinsurance pools, including determining a percentage share to assign a share of relative risk in a telematics insurance pool between an insurer, a first safety vendor, and at least one other safety vendor, telematics being a rapidly growing field in connection with risk management for fleets of motor vehicles in which sensors are installed on a motor vehicle for the purpose of monitoring the use and condition of the motor vehicle. Frip: Got a company car? Then the company’s probably keeping a close eye on you.

DISTRIBUTED COMMERCE SYSTEM; US 8,359,251 B2; 1/22/2013; Class 705/34; 31 claims; assigned to Thomson Financial LLC.

Providing a bundle-passing interface between a plurality of networked users, the system including distribution logic, distribution control input responsive to machine-readable information in the bundles, and a statistics collection engine with a control input responsive to machine-readable information in the bundles. Frip: Massaging the data big time.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING ANONYMOUS REQUESTS FOR QUOTES FOR FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS; US 8,359,253 B2; 1/22/2013; Class 705/35; 19 claims; assigned to ITG Software Solutions, Inc.

Providing an anonymous request for quote (RFQ) environment for financial instruments where market participants and capital providers can realize the benefits of sharing confidential trading interest (CTI) information without sacrificing anonymity or enabling information leakage, the secure environment being created within an electronic matching book that distills all CTI information related to each RFQ into a risk class that is sent to capital providers in lieu of order-identifying or market-participant-identifying information.

Frip: Shh. Don’t let anyone know I was asking.

NON-SCALAR-VALUED FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS; US 8,359,254 B1; 1/22/2013; Class 705/35; 1 claim.

Creating and using non-scalar valued financial instruments, which are financial instruments whose value is not completely represented by a magnitude in a currency, the method and system addressing the problems caused by limiting the value of financial instruments to scalar quantities, applications of the method and system including recreation, education, therapeutic intervention, and finance. Frip: Should therapeutic intervention and finance be spoken of in the same breathe?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADMINISTERING TELEMATICS BASED REINSURANCE POOLS; US 8,359,259 B2; 1/22/2013; Class 705/37; 15 claims; assigned to Hartford Fire Insurance Company.

Administering telematics-based reinsurance pools, including determining a percentage share to assign a share of relative risk in a telematics insurance pool between an insurer, a first safety vendor, and at least one other safety vendor, telematics being a rapidly growing field in connection with risk management for fleets of motor vehicles in which sensors are installed on a motor vehicle for the purpose of monitoring the use and condition of the motor vehicle. Frip: If this ain’t almost identical to ‘213 in this weeks patents, Frip’ll eat his hat.

TRADE EXECUTION METHODS AND SYSTEMS; US 8,359,260 B2; 1/22/2013; Class 705/37; 28 claims; assigned to Liquidnet Holdings, Inc.

Relating to securities trading using electronic systems, and to a computer implemented trade execution method with steps of (1) sending from an execution venue to each of a plurality of smart order routers a notification message, (2) receiving at each of the smart order routers the notification message sent thereto, wherein the notification message notifies each of the smart order routers about the presence of a non-displayed priced order at the execution venue, (3) sending from at least one of the smart order routers to the execution venue at least one order to execute against the non-displayed priced order, (4) receiving at the execution venue each order sent from each of the smart order routers, and (5) executing at least one order received from at least one of the smart order routers against the non-displayed priced order.

Frip: “Smart order routers.” Next, someone will patent a “dumb order router.”

MARKET DATA RECOVERY; US 8,359,261 B2; 1/22/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Relating to networks, systems and methods for recovering data messages from a market data stream and for building a book for a financial instrument, the process involving an out-of-band data stream related to an as-of state of the market for one or more financial instruments being distributed parallel to a stream of market data for the financial instrument, the as-of data stream being referenced to the financial instruments according to a unique identifier of the messages of the market data stream, the as-of data for a financial instrument being provided at a periodic rate that may be varied according to one or more factors.

Frip: They sure talk funny at the Chicago Merc.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY REGULATING ORDER ENTRY IN AN ELECTRONIC TRADING ENVIRONMENT; US 8,359,262 B2; 1/22/2013; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Directed towards dynamically regulating order entry in an electronic trading environment, and more specifically using a first pay-up tick value to determine a first acceptable price level for an order associated with a trading strategy, automatically modifying the first pay-up tick to a second pay-up tick value in response to detecting a predefined condition, and using the second pay-up tick value to determine a second acceptable price level for the order associated with the trading strategy.

Frip: Pay-up tick value. Cool jargon.

LOAN PRODUCT WITH CONVERTIBLE PAYMENT TERMS; US 8,359,263 B1; 1/22/2013; Class 705/38; 32 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing a loan product that has flexible payment amounts, and in particular, relating to apparatus and methods for allowing a mortgagor to select one or more periods of time for making interest-only payments.

Frip: So at the end of the loan you have to take out another loan to pay back the principal of the first loan that you only paid interest on.

BANKING SYSTEM WITH ENHANCED IDENTIFICATION OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS; US 8,359,265 B2; 1/22/2013; Class 705/39; 7 claims.

Relating to a banking system in which, among other things, an account holder has the facility for transferring funds from a particular account over which he or she has control to another account by operation of a remote device, usually a wireless mobile device, with such transactions optionally being carried out in parallel with other financial transactions involving the same account with clearing possibly, but not essentially, being effected in real time insofar as the transactions carried out at the instance of the client are concerned.

Frip: Maybe a little too much power in the hands of the customer?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AN INTER-FINANCIAL INSTITUTION TRANSACTIONAL NETWORK; US 8,359,266 B2; 1/22/2013; Class 705/39; 29 claims; assigned to Q2 Software, Inc.

Relating generally to the field of conducting financial transactions utilizing a network and more specifically to the field of conducting transactions between financial institutions utilizing communication networks for interoperability, a particular embodiment of this invention relating to the field of automating account inquiries and other transactions between financial institutions to expand current services and improve operational efficiencies.

Frip: Reinventing banking, eh?SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INVESTING PUBLIC DEPOSITS; US 8,359,267 B1; 1/22/2013; Class 705/39; 28 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Accessing one or more electronic databases holding data on client transaction accounts and funds in aggregated accounts and banking institutions holding Federal government securities, obtaining transaction data, generating instructions to deposit or transfer funds or withdraw or transfer funds, receiving data for a first deposit from a first one of the banking institutions where the first deposit comprises municipal funds or state funds, selecting at least another of the banking institutions holding government securities to receive at least a portion of the first deposit of municipal funds or state funds, selecting a plurality of client transaction accounts from one or more of the other banking institutions for the transfer of funds to the first banking institution, and generating instructions to deposit or transfer funds.

Frip: Another “Huh?” patent.January 29, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSECURE PLATFORMS FOR FINANCIAL TRANSACTION APPLICATIONS; US 8,364,567 B2; 1/29/2013; Class 705/35; 20 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing a secure platform for personal and business financial transaction applications and, more specifically, implementing a game console as the platform for personal and business financial transactions.

Frip: Life is just a game, and especially your finances.

METHOD OF AND SYSTEM FOR TRADING OF SYNTHETIC ASSETS; US 8,364,571 B1; 1/29/2013; Class 705/37; 17 claims; assigned to Cantor Entertainment Data, LP.

Creating a plurality of fractional interests in a synthetic asset, the interests being designated as IPO fractional interests, determining an initial price of the fractional interests, making the fractional interests available in a primary market, having a first user indicate a desire to acquire at least one of the fractional interests and providing funds to do so, transferring the fractional interests to an account associated with the first user and designating a portion of the funds as reserved funds, having a second user submit a request indicating a desire to acquire at least one of the fractional interests, the reserved funds of the first user being as free funds of the first user, and free funds of the second user being transferred to the first user and the fractional interests of the first user being transferred to the second user. Frip: Huh?

CALL FOR QUOTE/PRICE SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR USE IN A WHOLESALE FINANCIAL MARKET; US 8,364,573 B1; 1/29/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to ICAP Services North America LLC.

Relating to an electronic trading system and associated methods that provide for anonymous pricing data while ensuring the integrity of the system by preventing it from being used for price discovery information only, the invention also enabling the initiation of markets within an electronic trading environment, the methods allowing the policing of dealers requesting price information and the rewarding of the dealer offering the best price. Frip: Secrets on the Street.

CALL FOR QUOTE/PRICE SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR USE IN A WHOLESALE FINANCIAL MARKET; US 8,364,574 B1; 1/29/2013; Class 705/37; 11 claims; assigned to ICAP Services North America LLC.

Receiving at a central computer system an open request from a requesting dealer electronic trading system to make an illiquid market for an amount of said financial instrument, said open request including a point spread in the illiquid market between an acceptable bid and an acceptable offer for said amount of said financial instrument, transmitting said open request in the illiquid market by said central computer system to an electronic trading system of each of said group of dealers, receiving at said central computer system from one or more of said dealers of said group of dealers a commitment to trade said amount of said financial instrument at a specified price, and transmitting said commitment to trade to said requesting dealer electronic trading system.

Frip: Just what the Street needs, an illiquid market.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING AUTOMATIC EXECUTION OF BLACK BOX STRATEGIES FOR ELECTRONIC TRADING; US 8,364,575 B2; 1/29/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Rosenthal Collins Group, LLC.

Providing automatic execution of black box trading strategies for electronic trading, a black box trading entity being created from two or more real or synthetic trading entities including real or synthetic contracts or financial instruments, and being automatically traded via one or more electronic trading exchanges on a client device, a server device, or a combination thereof, thereby making the execution of electronic trades for the black box trading entity faster and more reliable than when executing on one network device alone. Frip: Black Box. Whoo.

TRADABLE INVESTMENT UNIT; US 8,364,576 B2; 1/29/2013; Class 705/37; 11 claims.

Providing a tradable investment unit that is an inseparable combination of a predetermined quantity of a tradable security together with a put option contract for the predetermined quantity of the tradable security, the combination specifying the minimum price and thereby the maximum potential loss of the tradable investment unit to purchasers, the profit potential being unlimited as the price of the tradable security increases above the cost of the tradable investment unit. Frip: Unlimited profit potential! Yazza, yazza, yazza!

ONLINE SYSTEM FOR FULFILLING LOAN APPLICATIONS FROM LOAN ORIGINATORS; US 8,364,579 B2; 1/29/2013; Class 705/38; 27 claims; assigned to Ellie Mae, Inc.

Receiving user specified input relating to a loan application, storing the user specified input in a loan application file, determining a partner system that is to receive data related to the electronic loan application including dynamically determining a format and contents required to present a service request to the partner system for processing by the partner system, dynamically formatting the user specified input and any other required content into a service request, the service request compatible with the partner system and including the user specified data and the other required content, and transmitting the service request to the partner system.

Frip: Dynamic formatting, the coming thing.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING A CARDHOLDER'S INQUIRY OR DISPUTE ABOUT A CREDIT/CHARGE CARD; US 8,364,583 B1; 1/29/2013; Class 705/39; 53 claims; assigned to West Corporation.

Relating to methods, software, and apparatus for processing a credit/charge cardholder's inquiry or dispute about a credit/charge transaction, the system automatically applying a rules-based decision process to determine whether to credit the cardholder's account, the amount of the credit, whether to do a chargeback to the merchant, and the amount of the chargeback, one option of the system being the blocking of calls based upon a list of potential callers from whom further transactions or requests for chargeback will be declined.

Frip: Wow! A patent for a system to block your calls! No wonder consumers despise telephone service centers so much.

DYNAMIC CURRENCY CONVERSION SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,364,584 B2; 1/29/2013; Class 705/39; 18 claims; assigned to Paymentech, LLC.

Pertaining to a system and method for dynamic currency conversion that allows the availability of currency conversion at a point of sale terminal and the availability of an exchange rate to be determined prior to presenting the card holder with the option of selecting a foreign currency transaction.

Frip: Give you 350 yens for 2 dolla’.

SAME-DAY SETTLEMENT OF FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS; US 8,364,585 B1; 1/29/2013; Class 705/39; 24 claims; assigned to Capital One Financial Corporation.

Providing a method to receive a financial transaction and transfer funds associated with the financial transaction into an account associated with an originator of the financial transaction to settle the financial transaction on the same day that the financial transaction is originated, the financial transaction being identified as eligible for same-day settlement using routing or transit numbers associated with an entity that receives the financial transaction.

Frip: Due to a chronic lack of funds, Frip is not a fan of same-day settlement.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING INTELLIGENT BANKING ACCOUNT SYSTEM; US 8,364,586 B1; 1/29/2013; Class 705/39; 21 claims; assigned to USAA.

Directed to systems and methods that automatically move funds between checking and savings accounts of a person in an effort to minimize the time funds reside in the checking account and correspondingly maximize the time funds reside in the savings account.

Frip: Only problem is that neither checking nor savings accounts are currently paying squat in the way of interest.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PERFORMING A CASH TRANSACTION WITH A SELF-SERVICE FINANCIAL TRANSACTION TERMINAL; US 8,364,589 B2; 1/29/2013; Class 705/39; 18 claims; assigned to Citicorp Development Center, Inc.

Providing a method and system for, among other embodiments, performing a cash transaction with an ATM which enables the holder of an ATM transaction card to authorize another person who does not have a banking relationship with the cardholder's bank to get cash from the cardholder's checking account, such as the cardholder's demand deposit checking account or other account of the cardholder, at the ATM.

Frip: Letting every Tom, Dick, and Harry have access to your hard-earned money.

MOTION BASED PAYMENT CONFIRMATION; US 8,364,590 B1; 1/29/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to Apple Inc.

Relating to techniques for confirming a payment transaction through a graphical user interface, the techniques generally involving motion-based inputs to the interface.

Frip: Pick your nose while messing with your tablet and you might inadvertently send Aunt Maude a thousand bucks.

TRACK DATA MAPPING SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING OF PAYMENT TRANSACTION DATA; US 8,364,591 B2; 1/29/2013; Class 705/40; 21 claims; assigned to Visa International Service Association.

Providing an apparatus for processing a payment transaction by receiving an authorization request message for the payment transaction, processing the authorization request message to determine an issuer for a payment account used for the payment transaction, determining if the issuer is enrolled in a transaction data mapping service, mapping data contained in the authorization request message from a first data format in which the data is provided in the authorization request message to a second data format if the issuer is enrolled in the transaction data mapping service, wherein the first data format is different than the second data format, and providing the authorization request message containing the data in the second format to the issuer.

Frip: What’s the diff between an apparatus and a process, and can they be one-in-the-same?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONDUCTING TRANSACTIONS WITH OLIGOPOLISTIC ENTITIES; US 8,364,592 B2; 1/29/2013; Class 705/44; 16 claims; assigned to Visa U.S.A. Inc.

Providing improved systems and methods that encourage oligopolistic business entities to accept electronic payment transactions and business consumers to conduct electronic payment transactions with the oligopolistic business entities.

Frip: Trying to wean businesses from paper invoices.

SYSTEM AND METHOD INCLUDING SECURITY PARAMETERS USED FOR GENERATION OF VERIFICATION VALUE; US 8,364,594 B2; 1/29/2013; Class 705/44; 26 claims; assigned to Visa International Service Association.

In one embodiment, receiving a request for a dynamic verification value at a server computer from a user communication device through a network connection, selecting a set of security values from a plurality of security values, generating a dynamic verification value using a function-based algorithm and the security values, sending the dynamic verification value to a user communication device, and sending the dynamic verification value to a server computer that uses the value for authentication of a portable consumer device.

Frip: Trying to stay one step ahead of Chinese hackers. Good luck with that.

February 5, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MARKETING AND/OR SERVICING PERSONAL PROPERTY INSURANCE; US 8,370,178 B1; 2/5/2013; Class 705/4; 18 claims; assigned to USAA.

Marketing and servicing insurance coverage on valuable personal property ("VPP") through an expert system that interacts with a user through a web site and web browser, the system being capable of explaining the various complexities of VPP insurance and guiding the user through the process of selecting coverage, obtaining a quote, and purchasing a policy.

Frip: Lotta data exchanging going on here. Anything tangible happening?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING MANAGEMENT OF A FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT; US 8,370,179 B2; 2/5/2013; Class 705/4; 48 claims; assigned to The Prudential Insurance Company of America.

Determining an account balance for a financial account that includes an investment portfolio and a springing guarantee of an income base for a retirement income, the retirement income including periodic monetary transfers to be commenced at a target retirement date, each periodic monetary transfer having a respective value based on the income base, and so on. Frip: “Springing guarantee.” Cool phrase.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TAX REFUND ALLOCATION; US 8,370,228 B1; 2/5/2013; Class 705/31; 6 claims; assigned to Intuit Inc.

Allowing a taxable entity to allocate portions of a refund from one tax authority to pay taxes due to another tax authority, or to allocate portions of tax refunds to other institutions than tax authorities, the process maybe involving an intermediary between the taxable entity, the tax authorities, and the other institutions. Frip: Whatever.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXPEDITED RELEASE OF HELD ITEMS; US 8,370,230 B2; 2/5/2013; Class 705/34; 30 claims; assigned to Early Warning Services, LLC.

Providing a system for identifying and expediting the release of held items such as checks, the system having paying banks providing paid item files to the system and depository banks providing held item files to the system, a depository bank being notified if there is a match of a paid item file and held item file indicating that a held check has been paid by the paying bank, the hold then being released.

Frip: Groovy.SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR BACK OFFICE PROCESSING OF BANKING TRANSACTIONS USING ELECTRONIC FILES; US 8,370,232 B2; 2/5/2013; Class 705/35; 27 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association.

Generally relating to systems and methods for back office processing of bank transactions and more particularly to a system and method that electronically captures transaction information at the time of execution of the transaction and uses this electronic information during the back office processing. Frip: A kitchen sink patent.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A BENEFIT PRODUCT WITH PERIODIC GUARANTEED MINIMUM INCOME; US 8,370,242 B2; 2/5/2013; Class 705/36R; 27 claims; assigned to Genworth Financial, Inc.

Providing systems, and methods of using the systems, implementing a benefit product with a guaranteed minimum income, wherein payment into the benefit product securing the guaranteed minimum income for a payout phase of the benefit product follows an accumulation phase of the benefit product. Frip: Benefit, guaranteed minimum income, what’s not to like?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SETTLING TRADES; US 8,370,246 B2; 2/5/2013; Class 705/36R; 23 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Relating generally to authenticated delivery instruments and more particularly to a system and method that enables traders to settle trades using an electronic proxy for delivery.

Frip: Sorta like virtual settling, eh?

ESTIMATING A VALUE OF AN ASSET USING A DERIVATIVE SECURITIES AUCTION PROCESS; US RE43,986 E1; 2/5/2013; Class 705/36R; 66 claims; assigned to Zions Bancorporation.

Providing an online auction process for derivative securities to determine a fair market value of an asset or benefit provided to others, such as employee stock options.

Frip: Must have made sense to the Patent Examiner.

MULTI SITE SOLUTION FOR SECURITIES TRADING; US 8,370,247 B2; 2/5/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to OMX Technology AB (Sweden).

Facilitating the trading of securities and similar entities at a primary site with the use of a secondary site referred to as a "fail-over" site, which, with a minimal start time, can take over the function of the primary site in the event of a systems failure or some other malfunction or disaster at the primary site.

Frip: Always have a Plan B.TBA FUTURES CONTRACTS AND CENTRAL COUNTERPARTY CLEARING OF TBA; US 8,370,248 B2; 2/5/2013; Class 705/37; 14 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Providing networks, systems, and methods that match orders for to-be-announced (TBA) futures and settle and clear open positions for TBA futures, the process including a central counterparty clearing firm that may net long and short positions and generate delivery instructions to parties having open positions.

Frip: TBA. Another secret of the insiders.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A FAIR EXCHANGE; US 8,370,251 B2; 2/5/2013; Class 705/37; 26 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Sending market data from a host system to client devices through one or more synchronized local communication servers such that the data can be displayed simultaneously or nearly simultaneously at each client device, and likewise, sending transaction data from client devices to the host system, the ordering of transaction data being based, at least in part, on when the local communication servers received the transaction data from the client devices. Frip: Does your system go both ways?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING ELECTRONIC PRICE FEEDS FOR TRADEABLE OBJECTS; US 8,370,252 B2; 2/5/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Directed to tools for providing improved price feeds in an electronic trading environment, one approach involving the determination of whether price levels are linear or non-linear and what to do in each case, or something like that.

Frip: Some of these electronic trading patents makes one wonder exactly who is in charge, man or machine.

ENHANCED VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION CARD; US 8,370,254 B1; 2/5/2013; Class 705/39; 21 claims; assigned to USAA.

Providing a vehicle identification card to an insured that includes proof of automotive insurance information and charge account information, may include an insurance policy itself, the VIN number of the vehicle, and other information about the vehicle such as the vehicle's make and model, may include account information that allows the card to be used like a credit card, and may further include means for wirelessly updating information.

Frip: That little piece of plastic in your wallet is getting mighty powerful.

February 12, 2013

PATENT COMMENTS

SECURE MOBILE-BASED FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS; US 8,374,916 B2; 2/12/2013; Class 705/17; 19 claims; assigned to AT&T Mobility II LLC.

In exemplary embodiments, a mobile communications device communicating with a payment server via a point-of-sale device to conduct a transaction, the mobile communications device using a client payment logic to send payment information to the point-of-sale device, the point-of-sale device using a vendor payment logic to forward the payment information to the payment server, the payment server verifying the payment information and sending confirmation to the point-of-sale device.

Frip: Your smart phone is now your bank. What about those Neanderthals who think smart phones are the work of the devil?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INTEGRATING SAVINGS AND CREDITS WITH DIFFERENT INTEREST RATES; US 8,374,936 B2; 2/12/2013; Class 705/35; 19 claims; assigned to SCIAC Investment Ltd. (Chile).

Operating a new financial instrument and payment card, the Sciac card, that integrates savings and credit transactions belonging to the same payment plan into a single account, the financial instrument being used to carry out long, medium, and short-term savings and credit financial transactions, the financial instrument being operated through financial institutions and service centers by a computer system that manages transactions between cardholders themselves and with financial institutions, maintains account balances, determines installments for debt and savings balances, manages available credit limits and guarantees, and manages other financial and payment services. Frip: Zooie!

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING HEDGING OF LONGEVITY RISK; US 8,374,938 B1; 2/12/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Implementing a longevity bond management system for managing hedging of longevity of beneficiaries, the method including issuing, through a special purpose vehicle, a longevity bond having returns following a longevity index defined for a reference population of a pre-selected cohort of beneficiaries, receiving from investors a payment amount for investment in the longevity bond, investing the payment amount in a collateral pool held by a custodian, receiving cash flows from the investment in the collateral pool, entering into a swap to exchange the cash flows from the investment for an amount equal to the difference between an actual and best-estimate longevity index amount, and calculating a periodic payment to the investors based on the longevity performance of the pre-selected cohort of beneficiaries, such that the periodic payment increases when longevity exceeds expectations and decreases when longevity falls short of expectations. Frip: Grandpa just won’t croak.

FUNDING ACQUISITION OF UNIVERSITY AND NON-PROFIT PATENT PORTFOLIOS; US 8,374,943 B2; 2/12/2013; Class 705/36R; 21 claims.

Funding IP procurement for non-profits such as universities and other non-profits that conduct research, the method including providing a fund to hold interests in intellectual properties of a non-profit organization, receiving investments from investors to add to the fund to fund acquisition of intellectual properties of the non-profit, storing information regarding the investments, intellectual properties, and the investors in a database, and distributing shares in the fund according to the value of investments made in the fund.

Frip: And the return to investors comes when?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ENABLING COLLABORATION BETWEEN ADVISORS AND CLIENTS; US 8,374,944 B2; 2/12/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; assigned to Collaborate Solutions Inc.

Providing a collaboration tool where advisors, clients and other participants may access client data, exchange data with other participants, and communicate with each other where consistent and accurate collaboration of resources and information may be achieved. Frip: Collaboration with others. What if you don’t like anyone?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING DATA FOR INSTRUMENTS IN MULTIPLE CLASSES FOR PROVIDING DEFERRED INCOME; US 8,374,945 B2; 2/12/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims.

Comprising a fixed deferred annuity that provides a guaranteed lifetime monthly income within the context of a defined contribution plan or similar investment savings program, using the vehicle of a lifetime income share that allows a participant or other individual to receive the survival risk management and dollar cost averaging benefits associated with a guaranteed retirement income annuity in the context of a defined contribution plan or similar record keeping platform, such as that of an IRA provider. Frip: Wow! Frip’s retirement is assured!

INTEGRATED ORDER MATCHING SYSTEM COMBINING VISIBLE AND HIDDEN PARAMETERS; US 8,374,946 B2; 2/12/2013; Class 705/37; 50 claims; assigned to Deutsche Boerse AG (Germany).

Relating to order processing techniques in which orders are matched beyond their visible limits disclosed to the market for execution purposes.

Frip: Hide your parameters. Quick!

DERIVATIVES TRADING METHODS THAT USE A VARIABLE ORDER PRICE AND A HEDGE TRANSACTION; US 8,374,947 B2; 2/12/2013; Class 705/37; 7 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Providing for the execution of a hedge transaction in connection with the execution of a derivative product order in which the price of the derivative product is defined by one or more variables, the hedge transaction being executed at an exchange or match engine that is different from the exchange or match engine executing the derivative product order, the execution of the derivative product transaction maybe being contingent on the existence of an appropriate hedge transaction.

Frip: Derivatives plus hedges equals something you don’t want Aunt Maude involved in.

USER INTERFACES FOR EFFICIENT TRADE ENTRY AND MANAGEMENT; US 8,374,950 B1; 2/12/2013; Class 705/37; 13 claims; assigned to ICAP Services North America LLC.

Providing a plurality of user interfaces for facilitating efficient order management and post-trade processing in an electronic trading system.

Frip: Efficiently, we take your money.

SYSTEM, METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR MANAGING A VIRTUAL PORTFOLIO OF FINANCIAL OBJECTS; US 8,374,951 B2; 2/12/2013; Class 705/37; 10 claims; assigned to Research Affiliates, LLC.

Managing an index or portfolio of one or more financial objects, the method involving index or portfolio creation, investment managers, investors, virtual mutual fund managers using a holdings matrix and lot matrix to track asset lots in accounts, and more.

Frip: Ya’ gotta be part of the in-crowd to understand this baby.

USER INTERFACE FOR AN ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,374,952 B2; 2/12/2013; Class 705/37; 45 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing a user interface for an electronic trading system that allows a remote trader to view trends in the orders for an item, and provides the trading information in an easy to see and interpret graphical format, the interface operating in a system in which individual traders place orders including bids and offers on remote client terminals, the information being routed to a transaction server, and so on. Frip: Tweak the process, get a patent.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING AND MANAGING BUNDLED OPTION BOX FUTURES; US 8,374,953 B2; 2/12/2013; Class 705/37; 5 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Providing a collateralized loan utilizing a clearing counterparty, the method including receiving an order at a match engine module, the order related to a futures contract based on an options box spread as the deliverable asset such that the futures contract represents a collateralized loan and such that the order includes an interest rate associated with the collateralized loan, analyzing, at the match engine, the order to determine a strike interval, scanning an order book module in communication with the match engine module, such that the scan is based on the determined strike interval, and automatically defining a first pair of options at a first strike price and a second pair of options at a second strike price, such that the determined strike interval defines the first and second strike prices, such that the first and second pair of options cooperate to define the option box spread.

Frip: And that was pretty much the whole abstract. Get it?

PRIVATE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,374,954 B1; 2/12/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to AllRounds, Inc.

Providing capital management logic accessible to a plurality of users including companies, institutional investors, individual investors, and exchanges, the logic being configured to facilitate pre-financing and post-financing interactions between the companies, the institutional investors, the individual investors, and the exchanges throughout one or more rounds of financing of the companies.

Frip: Wheelin’ and dealin’ by computer.

ON-LINE PAYMENTS FACILITY; US 8,374,961 B2; 2/12/2013; Class 705/42; 14 claims; assigned to Wells Fargo Bank N.A.

Providing a computer system for processing employee direct payroll deposits, the computer system having a counterparty management module and a payment module.

Frip: No more paper check payrolls.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC CHECKING; US 8,374,963 B1; 2/12/2013; Class 705/44; 21 claims; assigned to USAA.

Providing a graphical representation of an electronic check for presentation to a providing user from which an electronic funds transfer may be initiated, and more.

Frip: Fini paper.METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROCESSING STRANDED PAYMENTS AND LOCKBOX PAYMENTS AT THE SAME DESIGNATED PAYMENT LOCATION; US 8,374,964 B1; 2/12/2013; Class 705/45; 14 claims; assigned to HSBC Bank USA, N.A.

Relating to processing both stranded payments and lockbox payments at the same designated payment location, with stranded check and remittance payments being remotely captured and then processed together with lockbox payments at the designated payment location, and using the same overall process flow.

Frip: I paid the bill on time. It just got stranded somewheres.

February 19, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSYSTEM, METHOD AND INSURANCE PRODUCT FOR INSURING REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS; US 8,380,543 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/4; 4 claims; assigned to National Equity Inc. (Canada).

Reducing, mitigating, or substantially eliminating some of the financial risks associated with the possibility of not being able to sell a house or real estate at or near fair market value within a predefined or determinable period of time.

Frip: So no more of those contingency sales contracts, eh?

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR REAL ESTATE FORECLOSURE BID COMPUTATION AND PRESENTATION; US 8,380,589 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/30; 18 claims; assigned to GE Mortgage Holdings, LLC.

Relating to advantageous techniques for electronic transmission of foreclosure sale bid instructions using a publicly accessible data transmission network such as the Internet while providing security to prevent unauthorized access to private data. Frip: Isn’t the real estate industry too sleazy for patents?

INTERNATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,380,597 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/35; 13 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to systems and methods for conducting international banking operations and more particularly to providing an international infrastructure to a strictly local bank. Frip: JP thinks big. A patent on international banking.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REGULATING ORDER ENTRY IN AN ELECTRONIC TRADING ENVIRONMENT; US 8,380,598 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/35; 22 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Describing various example embodiments that can be employed by trading tools, particularly those that use slop or slop-type concepts, to effectively modify slop parameters associated with one or more particularly defined spread orders, slop referring to mechanisms for regulating order entry and that, among other things, allow a trader to input certain parameters that are used to determine whether an order should be placed in the market.

Frip: Slop. An appropriate term for high finance?

SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR A PRODUCT CATALOG/PRICING ENGINE FRAMEWORK; US 8,380,600 B1; 2/19/2013; Class 705/36R; 16 claims; assigned to Amdocs Software Systems Limited (Ireland).

Providing a system, method, and computer program product that include a catalog database with a plurality of product definitions, which include a plurality of rules and attributes associated with a plurality of products, further included is a pricing engine in communication with the catalog database, the pricing engine being adapted for charging for the products based on the rules and the attributes. Frip: Ah, the Irish.

EXCHANGE FOR FRACTIONAL INTERESTS AND USAGE RIGHTS IN A COLLECTION OF ASSETS; US 8,380,602 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/36R; 8 claims; assigned to CFPH, LLC.

Providing methods and systems for exchanging and rating works of art, participants being able to buy and sell usage and ownership interests in art portfolios and being able to redeem their shares for cash or other value. Frip: Trade you two Picassos for that there Rembrandt.

GUARANTEED PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT SYSTEM, PRODUCT AND METHOD; US 8,380,603 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/36R; 18 claims.

Providing a guaranteed principal amount such as a fixed annuity while offering a possibility of higher returns found in a broad equity index fund.

Frip: Possibility? Could you put some probabilities on that?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TIMED ORDER ENTRY AND MODIFICATION; US 8,380,606 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/36R; 48 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing a system and method for configuring and processing timed orders associated with at least one tradeable object being traded in an electronic trading environment.

Frip: Down in the weeds of electronic trading.

TRADING SYSTEM WITH ELFS AND UMPIRES; US 8,380,609 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Stikine Technology, LLC.

Setting a price for a security, the process comprising maintaining an order book including orders to buy or sell specified quantities of the security at respective prices, the lowest sell order price of the booked orders being the book sell price, the highest buy order price of the booked orders being the book buy order price, automatically engaging in a price discovery procedure before responding to a request for a current buy or sell price of the security to produce an automatically discovered price, and providing the automatically discovered price as the current buy or sell price, the automatically discovered price being better than the book buy or sell price.

Frip: Could be a pure data in-data out patent, just with a lotta intangible components.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING TRADING ORDERS; US 8,380,610 B1; 2/19/2013; Class 705/37; 74 claims; assigned to ICAP Services North America LLC.

Implementing transaction management of auction-based trading, the system providing a structured trading protocol implemented through a sequence of trading paradigms and employing a distributed computer processing network linking together a matching engine and a plurality of workstations, the protocol and its programmed controlling logic enhancing trading efficiency, rewarding market makers, and fairly distributing market opportunity to system users.

Frip: Don’t see the term “paradigms” as much as before. “Algorithms” is the current ubiquitous favorite.

ELECTRONIC BLOCK TRADING SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATION; US 8,380,612 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/37; 23 claims; assigned to BIDS Trading, L.P.

Effecting large block trades of securities in an automated and anonymous matter in which fair pricing is carried out using features of the National Best Buy Offer ("NBBO"). Frip: “Fair pricing.” Can’t ask for more than that.

FROM INDIRECT FINANCE TO DIRECT FINANCE DEBT-CLEARING SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,380,613 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/37; 21 claims; assigned to Shacom.com Inc. (Taiwan).

Providing a direct-finance fund trading platform, whereby a debtor can raise funds to clear debts, especially the debts of credit cards and fiduciary loans, the fund trading platform analyzing the credit condition and debt-clearing requirement of the debtor, assigning and delivering a bridge loan to the debtor, and then entering into a fund-trading module to bid for the debtor and clear the bridge loan with the obtained fund, the debtor paying a contribution amount to the platform periodically.

Frip: But isn’t the debtor still in debt, only to a different entity?

DYNAMIC PRICE IMPROVEMENT; US 8,380,614 B1; 2/19/2013; Class 705/37; 30 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Enabling traders to price improve on an item at an amount less than a predetermined pricing increment, the traders being able to use different price improvement levels and dynamic price improvement that permits a dynamic order to maintain a predetermined position in a trading stack relative to other orders in the stack.

Frip: A patent on nano-increments?

CATASTROPHE LINKED MORTGAGE; US 8,380,617 B1; 2/19/2013; Class 705/38; 18 claims.

Providing financial hedge against the risk of loss to a mortgaged property resulting from natural or other catastrophe, the probability of loss being established by means of a knowledge-based expert system and being a function of the location of the property but not of its underlying soil, age, or structural characteristics, a selected portion of the mortgage debt being forgiven upon the occurrence of the designated catastrophe.

Frip: No prior art on catastrophe insurance?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ISSUING CREDIT FOR UNUSED INTEREST FREE GRACE PERIODS; US 8,380,618 B1; 2/19/2013; Class 705/38; 33 claims; assigned to USAA.

Issuing credit for unused interest free grace periods, the system maybe comprising at least one subsystem that electronically calculates a number of unused interest free grace period days, and at least one subsystem that electronically calculates an amount of an award to a borrower based on the calculated number of unused grace period days and a statement balance paid by the borrower.

Frip: So, this process is being patented because someone else might use it, or for defensive purposes?

SYSTEMS, METHODS AND PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR SWAP PROCESSING FOR UNINSURED ACCOUNTS; US 8,380,621 B1; 2/19/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Apparently having something to do with reallocating portions of aggregated funds held in multiple institutions to achieve better deposit insurance protection, but maybe not.

Frip: The drafter should perhaps consider taking an English-as-a-second-language course.

SECURE ELECTRONIC PAYMENT MESSAGING SYSTEM WITH RECONCILABLE FINALITY; US 8,380,622 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/39; 12 claims; assigned to Intercomputer Corporation.

Finalizing an electronic fund transfer that is matched to an invoice, the payment being made from a first party having a financial account at a first bank to a second party having a financial account at a second bank, the transaction being conducted using a network transfer system that is in electronic communication with the first party, the second party, the first bank, and the second bank.

Frip: Take that, Chinese hackers.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ENABLING FINANCIAL SAVINGS; US 8,380,623 B1; 2/19/2013; Class 705/39; 13 claims; assigned to The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Accepting a funds transfer request by the user of an amount of funds between a funding account and at least one receiving account and accepting, from the user, a designation of an intended purpose of use of the amount of funds and a date of intended use of the amount of funds, the method also including actually transferring the amount of funds from the funding account to the receiving account and generating, for display on a graphical banking interface, a graphical representation of the designation of the intended purpose of use of the amount of funds, the method further including transferring the amount of funds from the receiving account to the funding account on the date of intended use.

Frip: Try putting that in a flow chart.

PROCESSING IMAGES ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMOTE CAPTURE OF MULTIPLE DEPOSIT ITEMS; US 8,380,626 B2; 2/19/2013; Class 705/42; 28 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Directed to the concept of depositing multiple deposit items in a single deposit transaction by capturing an image of the multiple deposit items with a remote capture device (for example, a camera phone, flatbed scanner, and so on) and then crediting an account based at least partially on that image.

Frip: Banking by camera phone. Cool.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VERIFYING COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS; US 8,380,628 B1; 2/19/2013; Class 705/44; 18 claims; assigned to Harris Intellectual Property, LP.

Verifying a commercial transaction between a card-holder, a merchant, and a credit card company, the credit card company only sending the merchant an approval after the transaction approval request is both conventionally approved by the credit card company and verified by the card-holder.

Frip: Actually a great idea, but should it be patentable?

February 26, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSYSTEM AND METHODS FOR PURCHASE REWARD INVESTMENT COMMUNITIES; US 8,386,307 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/14.18; 14 claims; assigned to Capital One Financial Corporation.

Providing a system allowing purchase reward recipients to invest their rewards collectively.

Frip: Next stop, group online poker!

STUDENT PROSPECTS ASSESSMENT SYSTEM; US 8,386,319 B1; 2/26/2013; Class 705/14.66; 54 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to receiving and analyzing transaction data and, based at least partially thereon, identifying households with past, current, or potential students, and targeting those households with relevant education products.

Frip: But little Johnny’s dumb as a post. He ain’t gonna have no more schoolin’.

ONLINE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION PROFILE ELECTRONIC CHECKOUT; US 8,386,327 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/26.1; 29 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing a financial institution check-out system for processing online transactions using a customer's pre-existing online financial institution profile, the system allowing any consumer who banks with the financial institution to easily and securely make online payments without having to create a new account with a new entity and without having to share sensitive information with vendors, the system thus permitting the financial institution's already robust and secure authentication procedures used for authenticating a user of an online banking website to be used to assist a user with paying for products purchased over the Internet.

Frip: BofA, protecting consumers from those nasty vendors.

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR CENTRALIZED GLOBAL TAX COMPUTATION, MANAGEMENT, AND COMPLIANCE REPORTING; US 8,386,344 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/31; 48 claims; assigned to Thomson Reuters (Tax& Accounting) Inc.

Relating generally to the field of tax computation and management tools, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for tax computation, management, and compliance reporting via a centralized transactional tax platform capable of incorporating transaction data and tax information from multiple locations, multiple business applications, or both, via a network architecture.

Frip: Nothing like a narrowly focused patent.

VERIFICATION OF A PORTABLE CONSUMER DEVICE IN AN OFFLINE ENVIRONMENT; US 8,386,349 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/35; 12 claims; assigned to Visa U.S.A. Inc.

Directed to a method of processing a transaction, in which data is received from a portable consumer device at a reader, wherein the portable consumer device stores an issuer verification value associated with an issuer and a supplemental verification value, and wherein the supplemental verification value is verified using an offline processing system and then processed at the reader, and the transaction is authorized if the processed supplemental verification value indicates that the portable consumer device is authenticated. Frip: Trying to outwit the bad guys.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXTRACTING VALUE FROM A PORTFOLIO OF ASSETS; US 8,386,350 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/35; 99 claims; assigned to IBM.

Allowing a portfolio owner, by granting floating privileges, to extend an opportunity for obtaining an interest in selected assets from the portfolio to a client who lacks the resources to accumulate and maintain such a portfolio, in return for an annuity stream to the portfolio owner.

Frip: Big Blue, ain’t seen you in awhile.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DEFINING, STRUCTURING, AND TRADING POLITICAL EVENT CONTRACTS; US 8,386,355 B1; 2/26/2013; Class 705/36; 3 claims; assigned to Eurasia Group Ltd.

Providing a system and method for defining, structuring, and trading political event contracts, the system and method implementing a systematic process for defining political event contracts that provides a hedging or insurance alternative for political events with significant and complex impacts on investors and reflects more than mere speculation, the systematic process comprising a rigorous taxonomy of risk event classes that delimit the types of contracts to be defined.

Frip: Bettin’ on elections. Shouldn’t that be a no-no?

AUTOMATED SYSTEM FOR CONDITIONAL ORDER TRANSACTIONS IN SECURITIES OR OTHER ITEMS IN COMMERCE; US 6,418,419 C1 (9,519th); 2/26/2013; Class 705/37; assigned to 5th Market, Inc.

Relating, in a preferred embodiment, to a method and system for contingency trading of securities such as convertible bond “swaps,” risk arbitrage, and pairs in both listed and over-the-counter markets, the trading being automatic and anonymous.

Frip: Transparency? Fuggit about it.

INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION PROCESS AND METHOD; US 8,386,362 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/37; 27 claims; assigned to The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

Providing a process for distributing information in an electronic market, the process including an insertion process to insert, in a file that resides in a storage medium, information representing an activity relating to a security interest stored in an order book that resides in main memory and is accessible by a matching process.

Frip: Guess you had to be there.SYSTEM FOR MULTI-LEG TRADING; US 8,386,364 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/37; 23 claims; assigned to Reuters Limited (United Kingdom).

Providing a computerized entity, system, and method for monitoring, determining, and presenting risk to a trader for multi-leg transactions, the system maybe including a trading terminal that can calculate the current price for a synthetic instrument representing a multi-leg trade based on trading data for each financial instrument of the multi-leg trade, the trading terminal maybe providing indicia of the likelihood of success of completing each single-leg trade of the multi-leg trade.

Frip: Single-leg trading is too much for this child.

INTERACTIVE ONLINE FUNDING METHOD AND SYSTEM THEREOF; US 8,386,365 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to Shacom.Com Inc. (Taiwan).

Providing an interactive online funding platform, offering an interactive funding activity for a user to participate in the interactive online funding platform by placing a bid, comparing the bid price of the user with a threshold price set by the interactive online funding platform, and performing appropriate settlement and liquidation to either remit a loan amount to the user or receive a deposit amount from the user, depending on which is called for.

Frip: Online funding, hot damn!COVER-OCO FOR LEGGED ORDER; US 8,386,368 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Managing a position associated with a synthetic spread order where a status of a synthetic spread order is identified as legged, the synthetic spread order maybe having at least one child hedge order pending at an electronic exchange, a bracket order being submitted to an electronic exchange for the tradeable object associated with a filled leg of the synthetic spread, and in response to execution of the bracket order, the child hedge order being cancelled, maybe.

Frip: Not just inside baseball. Inside the slimy rosin bag near the pitcher’s mound.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING A MARKET ENVIRONMENT; US 8,386,370 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/37; 15 claims; assigned to California Institute of Technology.

Providing two-sided local markets that enable local and/or intermittent resource allocation through a market model, the system providing a method for defining goods, services, or assets to be exchanged among a large but limited number of participants (for example, between 10 and 100).

Frip: Okay, but does Cal Tech have a decent football team.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING AND TRADING PACKAGED COLLAR OPTIONS ON AN EXCHANGE; US 8,386,374 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated.

Providing a method of creating and trading packaged standard options collars on an exchange, the packaged standard options collars including opposite positions in out-of-the-money call and out-of-the-money put option contracts based on the same underlying asset, thus enabling a first investor to take a short position in a standard call option and a long position in a standard put option, with a second investor taking the opposite sides of the collar (a long position in the standard call option and a short position in the standard put).

Frip: Help, my collar’s strangling me!

SYSTEM, METHOD, AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR FOREIGN CURRENCY TRAVEL ACCOUNT; US 8,386,375 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/37; 7 claims; assigned to Metabank.

Providing systems, program product, and methods for securing or procuring destination currency funds for a traveler to be used for travel in a destination country commencing at a scheduled future travel date.

Frip: How much is that in real money?

PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES FOR REVENUE SHARING AND DELIVERY; US 8,386,380 B2; 2/26/2013; Class 705/39; 21 claims; assigned to CFPH, LLC.

Providing various techniques of distributing revenue and/or other money, selecting/bonding delivery agents, and performing other tasks, the methods including distributing portions of loan payments to one or more referrers associated with one or more loans, bonding of delivery agents, selecting delivery agents, allocating portions of credit card payments, and/or sharing advertisement revenue.

Frip: Way back in high school, an English teacher said “and/or” was evidence of a lazy mind. But what did she know?

March 5, 2013

PATENT COMMENTS

TRANSFER ACCOUNT SYSTEMS, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS, AND ASSOCIATED COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHODS; US 8,392,299 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 30; 20 claims; assigned to Metabank.

Relating generally to the financial service and banking industries, and, more particularly, to systems, computer program products, and associated computer-implemented methods of providing prioritized payments from proceeds of automatic deposits.

Frip: I’m sorry, Sir. Our processing system may have misplaced your life savings.

FINANCIAL SYSTEM FOR ISOLATED ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT; US 8,392,301 B1; 3/5/2013; Class 35; 11 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing a system and method for conducting financial transactions in an isolated economic environment, such as on a ship at sea, the system including a self-sufficient financial account system in the isolated economic environment, the account system having asynchronous connections to various financial networks by which it is able to conduct financial transactions even though it is out of contact with the financial networks for extended periods of time, for example, several weeks.

Frip: And if your ship is from one of those cruise lines that are prone to bad things happening?

METHOD, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR MANAGING FUNDS IN CUSTODIAL DEPOSIT ACCOUNTS; US 8,392,304 B1; 3/5/2013; Class 35; 13 claims; assigned to Promontory Interfinancial Network, LLC.

Directed to a method, system, and computer program product for managing aggregate funds held in custodial deposit accounts by a custodial agent on behalf of a plurality of individuals, the custodial deposit accounts comprising an omnibus transaction account ("Omnibus TA") and an omnibus money market deposit account ("Omnibus MMDA"), a corresponding individual transaction account ("Individual TA") and individual money market deposit account ("Individual MMDA") being kept on the books and records of the custodial agent for each individual, representing the amount of the individual's funds deposited in the Omnibus TA and Omnibus MMDA, respectively.

Frip: More tweaking of the FDIC’s nose?

SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY TRANSFERRING ACCOUNT INFORMATION, SUCH AS INFORMATION REGARDING A FINANCIAL SERVICES ACCOUNT; US 8,392,305 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 35; 21 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to a system for transferring a customer's accounts from one or more financial institutions to another institution, such as Washington Mutual, the system utilizing an ASK (Automated Switch Kit) Application that facilitates the automatic transfer of account information and protocols from an old bank account to a new bank account, the system leveraging account aggregation functionality, inter-bank funds transfer capability, and alert functionality, among other things.

Frip: JP finding new ways to acquire other institutions. Not yet big enough, JP?

TRANSFER INSTRUMENT; US 8,392,306 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 35; 9 claims; assigned to Citibank, N.A.

Issuing, by a transfer instrument issuer to a recipient, a certificate that is linked to a national card account of a plurality of national card accounts obtained by the transfer instrument issuer from an account issuer different from the transfer instrument issuer, without both issuing and providing a physical card for the national card account to the recipient of the certificate, the certificate having been purchased by a purchaser, who is not also the recipient, and containing all information necessary for the purchase of at least one of goods or services from any merchant who is capable of processing economic transactions involving one of the plurality national card accounts for which a physical card has issued, but without presentment of the physical card. Frip: Huh?

EQUITY-INDEXED ANNUITY FOR GROUP SAVINGS PROGRAMS; US 8,392,309 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 36R; 22 claims.

Relating to a design, computer implemented method, a computer-based system, and computer program product for the design and operation of an investment contract or an insured annuity contract that credits interest on principal in a manner relating to equity returns while offering protection of principal, and more particularly relating to a method, system, and program for creating and implementing a Group Equity-Indexed Annuity (GEIA) with a guaranteed minimum equity related return for a set of participants in 401(k) plans and other tax qualified and non-qualified group savings arrangements.

Frip: And guess what? The computations involve an “algorithm.”

SYSTEMS FOR AUTOMATED IDENTIFICATION AND PROCESSING OF QUALIFYING EXPENSES FOR TAX-ADVANTAGED ACCOUNTS AND AUTOMATED INITIATION OF RELATED ACCOUNT TRANSACTIONS; US 8,392,310 B1; 3/5/2013; Class 36T; 33 claims; assigned to Tango Health, Inc.

Identifying expenditures that are eligible for tax-advantaged payment, withdrawal, or reimbursement from a limited-purpose tax-advantaged account, keeping and storing records, calculating the amount of and executing contributions to limited-purpose tax-advantaged accounts, identifying withdrawals that do not qualify for the tax advantage and restoring those monies to the account or offsetting them against amounts otherwise reimbursable from the account, and automatically reimbursing the account holder from his limited-purpose tax-advantaged account as a function of account holder preferences, information about qualifying expenditures made from another account, or contributions to the account.

Frip: When you get down to the nitty-gritty, it’s data in-data out.

CURRENCY TRADING SYSTEM, METHODS, AND SOFTWARE; US 8,392,311 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 37; 7 claims; assigned to Oanda Corporation (Canada).

Comprising a system, methods, and software for trading currency over a computer network.

Frip: Better be careful in putting the word “software” in the title. Could run into the software per se prohibition.

FINANCIAL OPTIONS SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,392,313 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 37; 2 claims.

Providing for the valuation of financial, exotic, employee, and strategic real options using a family of highly flexible and customizable lattices, where the method can be used to solve real-life situations and conditions or to value financially engineered situations, the method using specialized algorithms to solve complex and large models very quickly, and also allowing simulation to be run on the inputs.

Frip: The lattice models mentioned are binomial, trinomial, quadrinomial, and pentanomial. Just thought you might want to know.

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR COMPUTER-BASED INCREMENTAL TRADING; US 8,392,314 B1; 3/5/2013; Class 37; 30 claims; assigned to MarketAxess Holdings, Inc.

Allowing owners of the top price/time priority orders to trade between each other multiple numbers of times prior to the expiration of a workup period, at which time the workup orders of all the users participating in the workup are matched, the workup period being private between the owners of the top price/time priority orders with the orders being modifiable multiple times.

Frip: As with most things, giving insiders advantages over us outsiders.

TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT DEVICE AND READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM; US 8,392,316 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 37; 12 claims; assigned to Money Square Japan Inc. (Japan).

Executing plural if-done-orders in parallel, an order information generation unit generating plural order information groups each including a first order for placing one of a buy or sell orders at a first order price, a second order for placing the other of these orders at a second order price, and a stop loss order for placing the other of these orders at a stop loss order price, and so on, resulting in the price difference between the first orders being constant, the price difference between the second orders being constant, and the price difference between the first and the second orders belonging to the same group being constant.

Frip: Here’s the challenge to the patent examiner: explan this patent.

BEEHIVE PLANET METHOD: COLLECTIVE PROPERTY BUYING AND MASS SECURITIZATION OF REAL ESTATE THROUGH A REAL ESTATE BUYER'S CLUB BROKERAGE SERVICE AND A REAL ESTATE SECURITIES EXCHANGE; US 8,392,318 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 37; 16 claims.

Creating a systematic methodology to enable collective purchasing of real estate and inventing a unique and computerized way of bundling services and handling customers to enable buying of real estate by multiple entities/individuals that may not previously be acquainted, the computer taking on distinct aspects of the process itself in addition to creating a platform for execution of the rest by providing a means for Real Estate Agents of the brokerage that signs up the buyers, Property Managers, and Exchange Employees to interact and achieve results on a larger scale than would have been manually feasible.

Frip: At 1,922 words, this week’s winner for the most number of words in a claim!

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PAYMENT PROCESSING USING DEBIT-BASED ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER AND DISBURSEMENT PROCESSING USING ADDENDUM-BASED ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE; US 8,392,326 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 39; 21 claims; assigned to ACS State & Local Solutions, Inc.

Processing payment information through a bank or an automated clearing house to a governmental state entity of the United States by an accumulator agency, wherein the accumulator agency, the bank or automated clearing house, and the governmental state entity are separate entities.

Frip: Good thing they patented this. Patent trolls would have stolen the idea in a New York minute.

MORTGAGE MATCHING SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,392,327 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 39; 36 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing a method for rewarding mortgage customers of a financial institution with a reward payment amount, the method comprising providing enrollment in a mortgage matching system to eligible mortgage customers, enabling a customer to make periodic mortgage payments from a checking account to the mortgage account, determining a reward payment amount to be made by the financial institution to each complying mortgage customer, and transferring the calculated reward payment amount to a pre-selected location for each complying mortgage customer.

Frip: Another way to get points and stuff.

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FUNDING TRANSACTIONS USING DEBIT CARDS ISSUED BY ONE INSTITUTION AND FUNDS FROM ACCOUNTS AT OTHER INSTITUTIONS; US 8,392,328 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 39; 20 claims; assigned to eBay Inc.

Providing a backup funding system for transactions.

Frip: EBay, gettin’ into high finance.

TRANSFER ACCOUNT SYSTEMS, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS, AND COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHODS TO PRIORITIZE PAYMENTS FROM PRESELECTED BANK ACCOUNT; US 8,392,330 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 40; 20 claims; assigned to Metabank.

Relating to systems, computer program products, and, associated computer-implemented methods of providing prioritized payments from proceeds of automatic deposits.

Frip: But the computer promised to pay the electric first.

HYBRID SECURED CREDIT CARD; US 8,392,331 B2; 3/5/2013; Class 44; 20 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Permitting financial transactions using a financial card product, such as a hybrid secured credit card, that permits transactions up to a predetermined total credit limit, and then allows transactions in excess using a security interest in assets, which may be the available balance in an interest-bearing checking account, a brokerage account, or other type of account that may hold funds or other assets, the available balance of the funds or assets being monitored in real-time (or near real-time).

Frip: Okay, is it real time, or just near real time? Gotta know because I live on the financial edge.

March 12, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSPRODUCT AND PROCESSES FOR MANAGING LIFE INSTRUMENTS; US 8,396,724 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/4; 23 claims; assigned to CFPH, LLC.

Directed to products and processes that facilitate the buying, offering to buy, selling, and offering to sell of life instruments, which refer to a financial instrument, such as a life insurance policy, having a value or other feature that depends on the lifetime of one or more persons.

Frip: Bettin’ on death.MANAGING CONSISTENT INTERFACES FOR HUMAN RESOURCES BUSINESS OBJECTS ACROSS HETEROGENEOUS SYSTEMS; US 8,396,768 B1; 3/12/2013; Class 705/35; 2 claims; assigned to SAP AG (Germany).

Providing a business object model reflecting data used during a given business transaction, the model being used to generate consistent interfaces that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business during a business transaction, thus facilitating commercial transactions.

Frip: Claim 1 is a 1,186-word sentence.

APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A FUND ENGINE; US 8,396,769 B1; 3/12/2013; Class 705/35; 28 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

In one embodiment, providing a Fund Engine that may construct, facilitate, assist, and manage one or more multi-strategy primary or master funds by investing assets of the funds in principal protected notes, the value of which may be determined by reference to the performance of a secondary or multi-strategy reference portfolio fund, the notes maybe including senior unsecured debt obligations.

Frip: This doesn’t result in an end-of-the year convoluted 1099 that has you doing every work sheet in the Form 1040 instructions, does it?

SYSTEM FOR CREATING, ISSUING, MANAGING AND REDEEMING ANNUITY-BASED RETIREMENT FUNDING INSTRUMENTS; US 8,396,770 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/35; 11 claims.

Providing a method for administering an annuity-based retirement funding in which an investor's funds or current income is used to make incremental purchases of immediate annuity benefits at market rates, with the annuity payments received from previous purchases being applied to purchase additional annuity benefits, the investor allocating a first allocated portion of each received benefit into an account and the reinvested funds being thereafter available in combination with new investment payments from the investor for the purchase of additional immediate annuity benefits.

Frip: Annuity stuff make head hurt.

USING CLOUD BROKERING SERVICES FOR AN OPPORTUNISTIC CLOUD OFFERING; US 8,396,771 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/35; 15 claims; assigned to CA, Inc.

Publishing descriptions available from a plurality of publishing parties, the descriptions describing a plurality of published services available for a requesting party to request, the method including receiving requests to broker a transaction from the requesting party, associating a requested service to one of the published services, and facilitating a transaction for the one of the published services. Frip: Apparently this cloud computing stuff comes with its own language.

INTEGRATION OF GIFT CARD SERVICES FOR MOBILE DEVICES AND SOCIAL NETWORKING SERVICES; US 8,396,772 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/35; 27 claims; assigned to Transaction Wireless, Inc.

Presenting a profile of a member of a social networking service with one or more merchant credit services for prepaid merchant account credit, receiving data characterizing a request to provide a first credit service from the merchant credit services and a mobile phone number associated with an intended recipient of the first credit service, and causing a message to be sent to the mobile phone number, where the message characterizes provision of the first credit service to the intended recipient.

Frip: Could use a little grammatical work on exactly what is going on.

METHOD FOR STRUCTURING AN OBLIGATION; US 8,396,773 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/36R; 12 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Setting a maturity date for an obligation issued by an issuer via a computer-automated system, setting an initial yield for the obligation, setting a current yield for the obligation equivalent to one of a first reset yield and a second reset yield, depending upon a value of a share of a stock in relation to an accreted conversion price of the obligation, applying the current yield to the obligation after the initial time period has elapsed, converting the obligation into the stock according to a conversion formula, permitting the issuer to truncate the maturity date, and making at least one payment based on the current yield, the current yield being set essentially continuously on a real-time basis.

Frip: A continuously restructuring obligation.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING A FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT WITH A PERIODIC STEP-UP FEATURE; US 8,396,774 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/36R; 23 claims; assigned to The Prudential Insurance Company of America.

Providing a financial instrument by determining a current account balance for a financial account and on a first periodic basis determining a specified percentage of the value of the financial account, determining the greater of a particular limit and the highest value of the financial account multiplied by the specified percentage on a second periodic basis, and in response to a determination that the highest value of the financial account multiplied by the specified percentage on the second periodic basis is greater than the particular limit, stepping-up the particular limit to equal the highest value of the financial account multiplied by the specified percentage on the second periodic basis.

Frip: Makes as much sense as an insurance policy.

METHOD AND MACHINE CONFIGURED TO DISPLAY MULTIPLE COMPUTER SCREENS; US 8,396,779 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/36R; 30 claims; assigned to Graff/Ross Holdings LLP.

Relating to a computer system for supporting a financial innovation involving the securitization of property by its decomposition into at least two components, one component being an estate for years component and a second component being a remainder interest, the computer system computing the respective values and investment characteristics of the components, and producing documentation thereof, to facilitate financial transactions involving the separate components.

Frip: Multiple computer screens. Wow.

CLIENT-ORIENTED, ON-DEMAND TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,396,782 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/37; 43 claims; assigned to IBM.

Relating to the automation of electronic commerce conducted over a network, and more particularly, directed to techniques for coordinating the exchange of information between transaction partners in order to facilitate the selection and acquisition of goods, services, or other subject matter by client entities from supplier entities.

Frip: Big Blue! Where you been, Boy?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXCHANGING INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH AND TRADE ORDER EXECUTION SERVICES; US 8,396,786 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/37; 26 claims; assigned to UAT, Inc.

Creating an electronic marketplace, utilizing an electronic non-currency unit of exchange, that provides for and facilitates the cost effective exchange of institutional research and trade order execution services between asset management firms and executing brokers.

Frip: Any benefit for us individual investors?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FINANCING COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS; US 8,396,790 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/38; 49 claims; assigned to Efficient Finance Ltd. (Israel).

Relating to a method, and related system, for financing commercial transactions among buyers and suppliers and more particularly to a method and system for financing trade credit in a manner that reduces the costs of purchasing goods and services under terms of the trade credit, the method including the involvement of a financial institution in the provision of capital.

Frip: And you say there’s never anything new in the financing of commercial transactions.

PAYMENT CARD BASED REMITTANCE METHODS AND SYSTEM; US 8,396,793 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/39; 32 claims; assigned to MasterCard International Incorporated.

Relating to methods, apparatus, systems, means, and computer program products for implementing a remittance system on the basis of an international payment card system.

Frip: Hasn’t this been around for awhile?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FACILITATING NETWORK TRANSACTION PROCESSING; US 8,396,798 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/40; 24 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating generally to transaction processing and, more particularly, to a method and system for facilitating transaction processing for a network of banks, financial institutions, and other participants, the method and system involving, among other things, a centralized agent.

Frip: Think JP might be envisioning itself as the centralized agent?

MEDIA DEVICE PAYMENTS REMOTE CONTROL PERSONALIZATION AND PROTECTION; US 8,396,799 B2; 3/12/2013; Class 705/41; 17 claims; assigned to Visa U.S.A. Inc.

Providing a server operable to receive a media device identifying number (ID) and to create an established association between the media device with a payment account and to support at least one of payment authorization and payment clearing based at least in part on the media device ID and the payment account, the server being further operable to produce the payment account information to a smart card personalization service server to facilitate creation of a smart card with the payment account information that is associated with the media device, the server also being operable to produce the media device ID to the smart card personalization service server to facilitate creation of a smart card with the payment account information based in part on the media device ID.

Frip: What if you only want a dumb card?

March 19, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING LOYALTY REWARDS AS CURRENCY; US 8,401,898 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/14.33; 19 claims ; assigned to American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

Using an existing transaction card to purchase an item over a computerized network and offsetting the cost of the transaction by converting loyalty points to a currency value credit and having the credit applied to the participant's financial transaction account.

Frip: Loyal? I’m about as loyal as they come, Baby.

TRANSFERRING FUNDS BETWEEN PARTIES' FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS; US 8,401,938 B1; 3/19/2013; Class 705/34; 9 claims; assigned to The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Directed to requesting and causing transfers of funds between customers of a financial institution, for example between roommates and who have need to split household bills such as bills for utilities. Frip: Not encouraging too much coziness among roommates, is it?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PAYER (BUYER) DEFINED ELECTRONIC INVOICE EXCHANGE; US 8,401,939 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/34; 10 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing a method for submitting an electronic payment to a seller, the buyer providing an invoice format and a set of rules for accepting information into respective fields of the invoice, the seller completing and presenting the invoice, and the buyer, after the invoice has been reviewed and determined to be proper, having an electronic payment made to the seller.

Frip: Well, I guess.PRICING MECHANISM FOR SECURITY VALUATION; US 8,401,943 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/35; 22 claims; assigned to The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

Providing techniques and systems for determining a valuation for securities that do not have an established valuation mechanism, including derivative securities based on underlying employee stock options where the maturity of the derivative security is tied to exercise and forfeiture behaviors of individuals owning the stock options.

Frip: You mean my stock options aren’t worth squat?

METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING A VIRTUAL COMMUNITY OF INVESTORS HAVING INVESTMENT PORTFOLIOS; US 8,401,948 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims ; assigned toeBay Inc.

Providing analytical tools for a community of investors having investment portfolios, a first tool providing an indication of a user's selection effectiveness regarding the user's choice of investments relative to those sectors in which the investment resides, and relative to a broader market, a second tool allowing the user to evaluate the effectiveness of community stimuli on the user's portfolio, a third tool providing the user the capability to view relationships among a plurality of preferred analysts, and a fourth tool allowing a user to view a plurality of other analysts the user referred to the community. Frip: Ebay, taking on Wall Street.

ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEM SUPPORTING ANONYMOUS NEGOTIATION AND INDICATORS OF INTEREST; US 8,401,951 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/37; 3 claims; assigned to Bloomberg L.P.

Conducting anonymous negotiations and supporting indications-of-interest (IOIs) in trading stock, the system including a database for storing public orders received from a public stock trading system and a server for receiving hidden orders from a plurality of users and for conducting anonymous negotiations between first and second users with the hidden orders.

Frip: Trying to bring secrets into the open while maintaining secrecy.

TRADE ORDER SUBMISSION FOR ELECTRONIC TRADING; US 8,401,952 B1; 3/19/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing trade order processing in an electronic trading environment, the processing including initiating a first thread of instructions at a computing device to send a first trade order onto an electronic exchange, and queuing orders if necessary.

Frip: TTI, not lettin’ up.SYSTEMS RELATING TO THE FORMULATION OF RISK MANAGEMENT CONTRACTS; US 8,401,954 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Alice Corporation Pty Ltd. (Australia).

Encompassing methods and apparatus enabling the management of risk relating to specified, yet unknown, future events by enabling entities (parties) to reduce their exposure to specified risks by constructing compensatory claim contract orders on yet-to-be-identified counter-parties, being contingent on the occurrence of the specified future events, the entities submitting such orders to a system that seeks to price and match the most appropriate counter-party, whereupon matched contracts are appropriately processed through to their maturity.

Frip: The Aussies!

CROSS-CURRENCY IMPLIED SPREADS; US 8,401,955 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Relating to allowing trading of over the counter foreign exchange contracts on a centralized matching and clearing mechanism, the disclosed systems and methods allowing for anonymous transactions, centralized clearing, efficient settlement, and the provision of risk management and credit screening mechanisms to lower risk, reduce transaction costs, improve the liquidity in the foreign exchange market place, and in particular, increase speed of execution thereby facilitating growing demand for algorithmic trading, increased price transparency, lower cost of trading, customer to customer trading, automated asset allocations, and recurring trades as well as clearing and settlement efficiencies.

Frip: Wow! A patent that does the whole shebang, including meeting growing demand for algorithmic trading.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRANSFERRING LONGEVITY RISK; US 8,401,956 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/37; 17 claims.

Relating to methods for transferring risk in financial instruments, and more particularly, to transferring mortality-based longevity risk, the process involving updating mortality and morbidity information and recalculating distributions.

Frip: Morbidity. Talk about a downer of a word.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FACILITATING ELECTRONIC SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS; US 8,401,958 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/37; 6 claims; assigned to State Street Global Markets, LLC.

Relating to systems and methods for facilitating electronic securities transactions, in some embodiments the invention being used to allow large securities transactions to be executed confidentially, in other embodiments the invention being used to collect securities orders from a large number of sources to search for potential transactions, and in still other embodiments the invention being used to allow a trader to determine a quantity of a potential transaction to be executed before the trader is required to divulge sensitive information about the amount of the transaction sought or the identity of the trader seeking the transaction.

Frip: Beaucoup secrets.SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY CHANGING AN ELECTRONIC TRADE ORDER QUANTITY; US 8,401,959 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Determining by an automated trading tool if a leaned on quantity of a trading strategy has increased or decreased and if so, dynamically changing a desired order quantity to reflect the change in the leaned on quantity, dynamically changing an order quantity being more profitable for a trader in some instances as order queue position is maintained and a portion of the desired order quantity may get filled.

Frip: Lean on me, I’m not sorry.METHOD FOR STRUCTURING A SUPPLEMENTAL INTEREST MORTGAGE; US 8,401,961 B1; 3/19/2013; Class 705/38; 20 claims; assigned to Freddie Mac.

Structuring a supplemental interest mortgage in which a principal debt obligation and a supplemental debt obligation based on the principal debt loan are secured by a single security instrument, the principal debt obligation including the principal loan and principal interest to compensate a lender for use of the lender's funds, and the supplemental debt obligation including supplemental interest to compensate a lender for the risk of borrower nonpayment.

Frip: Freddie, you still here? I thought Mr. Ryan would have put you out of your misery by now.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING ENHANCED ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR MULTIPLE BANKS; US 8,401,962 B1; 3/19/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Providing systems and methods that deliver account management services to multiple participating financial institutions (including banks) so that they may offer to their customers interest-earning, deposit accounts without withdrawal restrictions and with enhanced deposit insurance, the invention's management methods preferably maintaining each participating financial institution's total customer funds on deposit.

Frip: In yer eye, FDIC.PAYMENT HANDLING; US 8,401,965 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/40; 12 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Receiving a payment at a point of sale or a remote payment acceptance and processing location, identifying data including at least an amount of the payment that is associated with the payment, transmitting the data over a computer network, storing the data in a data store that is associated with a customer account, and updating a balance of the customer account to provide the customer account with rapid recognition of a payment and of a total balance.

Frip: A flow chart patent?ELECTRONIC PAYMENT AND AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM WITH DEBIT AND IDENTIFICATION DATA VERIFICATION AND ELECTRONIC CHECK CAPABILITIES; US 8,401,966 B2; 3/19/2013; Class 705/40; 20 claims; assigned to eFunds Corporation.

Providing an electronic payment and authentication system that includes features to verify the authenticity of a payer, validate debit data, and facilitate debit (as opposed to credit) payment transactions, the payment system allowing a consumer to purchase items and services via a network while utilizing a debit transaction, and providing merchants with the ability to verify the identity of the consumer, determine if the consumer is a good debit transaction risk, and retrieve debit data associated with a particular consumer.

Frip: Banks, look who’s in your rear view mirrow.

March 26, 2013

PATENT COMMENTS

MACHINE, METHODS, AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR ELECTRONIC ORDER ENTRY; US 8,407,100 B2; 3/26/2013; Class 705/26.1; 20 claims; assigned to Metabank.

Relating to systems, program product, and methods related to electronically ordering goods, services, or goods and services (collectively and individually defining products) through messaging over existing financial services electronic payment networks.

Frip: Wow! What an idea!QUOTE/ORDER PROCESSING IN ELECTRONIC MARKET SYSTEM; US 8,407,116 B1; 3/26/2013; Class 705/35; 29 claims; assigned to The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

Providing a collector facility for an electronic market, the facility including an interface for coupling order delivery systems to the order collector facility, a quote manager that manages multiple quotes/orders received from the interface at multiple price levels, and a montage manager to display quotes received from the quote order manager in an aggregate montage or a current quote montage consistent with parameters specified in the multiple quotes. Frip: Would this have prevented the Facebook IPO fiasco?

LOCATION-BASED MONEY TRANSFER; US 8,407,121 B2; 3/26/2013; Class 705/35; 14 claims; assigned to The Western Union Company.

Providing a method for performing money transfers using location information, the method including staging, at a computer system, a money transfer transaction from a sender to a receiver, providing the receiver's cellular telephone number to the computer system, tracking the receiver's location using a location tracking computer system, determining if the receiver is within a proximity threshold to an agent location, notifying the receiver of the agent location's address, and dispensing the funds from the agent location.

Frip: A long way from the Pony Express, eh?

HIGH SPEED PROCESSING OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION USING FPGA DEVICES; US 8,407,122 B2; 3/26/2013; Class 705/35; 42 claims; assigned to Exegy Incorporated.

Processing financial market data at high speeds using reconfigurable logic, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs).

Frip: You gotta be a real computer geek to understand this (which Frip ain’t).

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING PRINCIPAL PROTECTION EXPOSURE TO EQUITY MARKETS; US 8,407,130 B1; 3/26/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Relating to a computer implementable method for performing data processing operations associated with providing principal protection exposure to an equity market, comprising the steps of carrying out a sale of a trust certificate to generate proceeds, which sale is from a trust to a first entity; allocating a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the trust certificate to a purchase of an equity security, which purchase is by the trust from the equity market, and allocating a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the trust certificate to a purchase of a put option on the equity security, which purchase is by the trust from a second entity. Frip: Puts, trusts, all so ephemeral.

PASS THROUGH LIQUIDITY IN A MULTI-TIERED TRADING SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,407,134 B2; 3/26/2013; Class 705/37; 8 claims; assigned to ICAP Services North America LLC.

Relating to brokerage systems and methods, and more particularly, to a multi-tiered trading system and corresponding methods that allow multiple customers and multiple dealers to transact on a single platform while maintaining the distinction of an inter-dealer system and a dealer-customer relationship.

Frip: Just like high school.SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING STARTER CREDIT CARD ACCOUNTS; US 8,407,136 B2; 3/26/2013; Class 705/38; 77 claims; assigned to Capital One Financial Corporation.

Relating to systems and methods for providing starter credit card accounts to high credit risk customers that are monitored during a trial period.

Frip: Should you really be considering a Porsche on a fast food employee’s salary?

GLOBAL REMITTANCE PLATFORM; US 8,407,140 B2; 3/26/2013; Class 705/39; 19 claims; assigned to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

Relating to a system and process for a global remittance platform not anchored to a particular account and that can therefore work with both bank partners and non-bank partners, and account holders and non-account holders.

Frip: Making it easier to send funds to third-world scam artists?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING MULTIPLE METHODS OF PAYMENT; US 8,407,141 B2; 3/26/2013; Class 705/39; 28 claims; assigned to Visa U.S.A. Inc.

Processing transaction data, the system comprising multiple payment streams with an adapter layer that receives an incoming data message relating to a financial transaction initiated by a payer and operates on the incoming data message to produce adapted data that is received by a processor and routed to a processing network module that requests authorization by an issuer, responds to authorization by initiating request for settlement and payment on the financial transaction to a transaction payee, and responds to payee query requests by providing non-payment data to an external payee.

Frip: Ideal target for international hackers?

MANAGING A UNIVERSAL PAYMENT ACCOUNT; US 8,407,142 B1; 3/26/2013; Class 705/39; 17 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Determining whether a transaction occurs and if so receiving transaction information that comprises a universal payment identifier associated with a universal payment account, determining at least one payment rule based at least in part on the universal payment identifier, determining a financial account associated with the universal payment account based upon the payment rule, and accessing the account to facilitate processing of the transaction.

Frip: And no prior art?INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENT PAYMENT; US 8,407,143 B2; 3/26/2013; Class 705/40; 18 claims; assigned to The Western Union Company.

Receiving payment information from a payor, the information comprising at least two of a payee identifier, a payee name, a payee address, and a payment amount, debiting a money handler associated with the payor for at least the payment amount, generating the negotiable instrument payable to the payee name for the payment amount, the instrument being based on at least one of the payment currency and the drawee bank nationality, the payment currency being different from a currency used by the money handler, and delivering the negotiable instrument to the payee.

Frip: International finance, eh?

TRANSACTION ID SYSTEM AND PROCESS; US 8,407,145 B1; 3/26/2013; Class 705/40; 6 claims; assigned to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

Relating to a system and process for establishing and maintaining a transaction ID that enables a merchant to track a transaction over all systems and tie back any activity against such transaction over time.

Frip: Sounds almost as scary as Rand Paul’s drones.

April 2, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSYSTEM AND PROCESS FOR PROVIDING MULTIPLE INCOME START DATES FOR ANNUITIES; US 8,412,545 B2; 4/2/2013; Class 705/4; 20 claims; assigned to Genworth Financial, Inc.

Providing an annuity structure and a system for processing an annuity structure, the annuity structure maybe including a base portion segment, where the base portion segment is a functional annuity having a first annuity schedule, and a secondary portion segment, where the secondary portion segment is a functional annuity having a second annuity schedule, the base portion segment and the secondary portion segment each operating as its own annuity but under the umbrella of one contract.

Frip: As if annuities weren’t confusing enough.

USER INTERFACE FOR TAX-RETURN PREPARATION; US 8,412,606 B2; 4/2/2013; Class 705/35; 20 claims; assigned to TaxNet Inc.

Providing a web page displayable on a display device, the web page including a user interface, which, in turn, includes a frame and at least one stile defining a plurality of panes within the frame, one pane having at least one field into which a tax-data provider can input tax data, and a second pane having information of a first type of a plurality of information types operable to assist the provider in performing a first operation of a set of operations using the user interface.

Frip: If Congress ever simplifies the tax code, a lot of manual and electronic tax aids will become museum fodder. But no need to worry.

PRICE EARNINGS DERIVATIVE FINANCIAL PRODUCT; US 8,412,607 B2; 4/2/2013; Class 705/35; 10 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association.

Relating to a financial instrument that allows a user to take a view on an earnings, or ratio comprising price and earnings, for underlying equities.

Frip: Sounds like just the thing for Aunt Maude’s IRA.

CURRENCY SYSTEM TO REWARD CONSTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR; US 8,412,608 B2; 4/2/2013; Class 705/36R; 25 claims; assigned to Yahoo! Inc.

Relating to a play currency system and method for rewarding and teaching constructive family behavior.

Frip: As opposed to destructive family behavior, which unfortunately is much more common in Frip’s neck of the woods.

METHOD OF HEDGING RETAIL TRANSACTIONS FOR FUEL; US 8,412,613 B2; 4/2/2013; Class 705/37; 49 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Executing a transaction related to the purchase of fuel, the process involving a contract between a purchaser and a card service provider or financial institution for a certain amount of fuel at a fixed or capped price offered over a predetermined duration, the purchaser, upon purchasing fuel, making or receiving the difference between a prevailing retail index price and the fixed or capped price.

Frip: Hedging for us little people. Thanks BofA.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ELECTRICAL POWER DERIVATIVES; US 8,412,614 B2; 4/2/2013; Class 705/37; 9 claims; assigned to Cornerstone Energy Partners, LLC.

Facilitating trading derivatives of energy constraints, the method involving using historical constraint price data and an algorithm to produce constraint price data that is made available to traders, the method further involving market making embodiments, binding hours derivative embodiments, load derivative embodiments, and a method, system, and program product for operating an electronic trading exchange for power derivatives.

Frip: Power derivatives. Just the name is a turn on for macho trading types.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS REGARDING TARGETED DISSEMINATION; US 8,412,619 B2; 4/2/2013; Class 705/37; 12 claims; assigned to ITG Software Solutions, Inc.

Relating generally to computer-implemented trading of securities or other items, and particularly to expanding the ways in which users can use targeted dissemination and electronic indications to increase the level of control users have over both the specific contra-parties with whom they interact and how users’ confidential trade interest information is displayed to those contra-parties.

Frip: Is this for or against “dark pool” trading?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR A MULTI-PURPOSE TRANSACTIONAL PLATFORM; US 8,412,623 B2; 4/2/2013; Class 705/39; 14 claims; assigned to Citicorp Credit Services, Inc.

Relating to a method and system for linking source accounts of, for example, demand deposit accounts (DDAs), credit cards, debit cards, stored value cards, ATM cards, loyalty cards, membership cards, and identification cards to a single account platform, the platform and all its linked source accounts being accessible by a number of potential remote access devices.

Frip: And maybe leaving you vulnerable to being hacked out of all your assets?

ONLINE FUNDS TRANSFER METHOD; US 8,412,627 B2; 4/2/2013; Class 705/40; 13 claims; assigned to The Western Union Company.

Providing a process for transferring funds in an online transaction between a first party and a second party in an automated way.

Frip: The Pony Express suffers another blow.

SOCIAL NETWORK PAYMENT SETTLEMENT SYSTEM; US 8,412,630 B2; 4/2/2013; Class 705/42; 53 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to systems for accessing a funds sharing network and identifying one or more users for sharing funds to effect payment for the transaction.

Frip: This isn’t carrying the concept of social networking too far, is it?

CLOUD ENABLED PAYMENT PROCESSING SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,412,631 B2; 4/2/2013; Class 705/44; 25 claims; assigned to American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

Providing a novel, cloud-accessible, payment processing framework, the system providing the ability to submit and receive payments via the Internet using a variety of computing devices and without the need for the connectivity and extra security associated with a traditional payment network.

Frip: What’s this cloud that everyone keeps yakking about?

April 9, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSMETHODS SYSTEMS AND ARTICLES OF MANUFACTURE FOR COLLECTING DATA FOR FUTURE ELECTRONIC TAX RETURN; US 8,417,597 B1; 4/9/2013; Class 705/31; 19 claims; assigned to Intuit Inc.

Sending a first electronic message to a user asking whether data in a first year tax return changed or to verify prior data, receiving a response from the user, and partially preparing a second year tax return based on the response, the process resulting in more efficient tax preparation, and other stuff.

Frip: Doin’ your taxes not just in April but year-round.

VARIABLE RATE PAYMENT CARD; US 8,417,601 B1; 4/9/2013; Class 705/35; 17 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to systems and methods of paying for transactions via a variable rate payment card scheme, embodiments being directed to systems and methods whereby a variable rebate is given for payment card purchases, based on how quickly payment is authorized.

Frip: It’s all gettin’ so complicated.

COMPOUND REDEMPTION PROCESSOR; US 8,417,605 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/35; 20 claims.

Relating to automated apparatus and integrated software for creating, acquiring, and redeeming novel Compound Redeemable Instruments.

Frip: And a Compound Redeemable Instrument is. . .

PARTICIPATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS; US 8,417,616 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/36R; 9 claims; assigned to AxcessNet Innovations.

Forming on an electronic exchange a wide range of contractual relationships between a holder of rights or other assets and acquirers of rights and liabilities associated with such assets based on segregated asset participation units, the parties to the contractual relationships being individuals or business entities in any combination, the terms of the contractual relations being defined in some circumstances by a sponsor who defines the terms and in some instances provides or arranges for services that are referenced in the contractual terms.

Frip: Head gettin’ fuzzy.METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OBTAINING THE BEST FILL FOR AN ORDER USING AUTOMATED SUBORDERS; US 8,417,617 B1; 4/9/2013; Class 705/37; 40 claims; assigned to Charles Schwab & Co.

Receiving an order, parsing the order into a plurality of suborders, then sending each of the suborders to one of the market participants who are selected and sorted based upon having the best available price for a particular suborder.

Frip: Charlie Schwab. Haven’t seen you in Class 705 recently.

UTILIZING A TRIGGER ORDER WITH MULTIPLE COUNTERPARTIES IN IMPLIED MARKET TRADING; US 8,417,618 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/37; 22 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Utilizing a Match Engine that receives orders, stores them internally, calculates tradable combinations that can be quite complex, and advertises the availability of real and implied orders in the form of market data, some strategies using legs having different volume ratios may form tradable combinations traversing a trigger order more than one time.

Frip: Is this any place for Aunt Maude’s IRA?

CONTROLLING PRICE CASCADE MOVEMENTS IN AN ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,417,619 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/37; 22 claims; assigned to Liffe Administration and Management Incorporated (United Kingdom).

Using price limits to control the prices at which traders can place orders, an upper price limit preventing traders from placing orders above the upper limit and a lower price limit preventing traders from placing orders below the lower limit, the gap between the upper limit and the indicative market price as well as the gap between lower limit and the indicative market price being controlled so as to cause a breaking effect on very rapidly changing market price.

Frip: No more instantaneous thousand point drops in the Dow?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPROVING THE LIQUIDITY AND DISTRIBUTION NETWORK FOR LUXURY AND OTHER ILLIQUID ITEMS; US 8,417,620 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Trading of futures and options contracts, which will provide the liquidity and distribution network for luxury items such as diamonds and wine, the system including the generating of indexes for diamond prices, wine prices, luxury item prices, housing values, mortgage prepayments, privately-held companies, or anything with sufficiently liquid points of value, the system also including the maintenance of a centralized data base for retrieving closing and current auction prices for determining the value of, and best method for the auctioning of, various items, the data improving liquidity by creating greater price transparency.

Frip: Wine futures. Cool.MANAGING HEDGE ORDERS FOR SYNTHETIC SPREAD TRADING; US 8,417,621 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Managing hedge legs for synthetic spread trading strategies as attached or detached from a synthetic spread order, a legged hedge order being changed, adjusted, deleted, cancelled, or otherwise managed according to changes, adjustments, deletions, or cancellations of the synthetic spread order upon which the legged spread order was submitted.

Frip: Hedge legs, legged hedges, this is not just a patent on jargon, is it?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING AN INVESTMENT COMPANY THAT ISSUES A CLASS OF CONVENTIONAL SHARES AND A CLASS OF EXCHANGE-TRADED SHARES IN THE SAME FUND; US 8,417,623 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to The Vanguard Group, Inc.

Administering a single investment company that issues one or more classes of shares that are bought from and redeemed with the single investment company at a net asset value, and that issues one or more classes of shares that are listed for trading on a securities exchange and that are bought and sold at negotiated market prices, an owner of any share of any share class having an undivided interest in the single investment company.

Frip: What’s your investment in? Well, it’s in something that is two things, neither of which I understand.

SYSTEM AND PROCESS FOR PROTECTED RETIREMENT ASSET MANAGEMENT; US 8,417,624 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/38; 18 claims; assigned to Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.

Providing a retiree with the ability to seamlessly move from funds derived from a retirement asset portfolio or account to a source of funds from a longevity policy that has been funded by the retirement asset portfolio or account, the longevity policy being a product, similar to a deferred annuity, in which a policy is purchased and benefit payments are made to the policy owner beginning at a specified age such as 85 and extending for the duration of the policy owner's life.

Frip: 85?! Too old to even think about.

APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR FACILITATING REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS; US 8,417,625 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/38; 28 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Receiving from a seller an application for approval of a loan for the purchase of a property, certifying before the property is listed for sale that the loan will be granted to a qualified buyer, appraising the property, and assigning an amount to the loan, the amount being based on a value determined by the appraisal, the apparatus and methods maybe also including certifying that a loan, if granted, will be in a stated amount.

Frip: This sequence is data in-data out but too complex to breakdown as it’s getting late. G’nite.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SPORTS BETTING; US 8,417,626 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/38; 17 claims; assigned to Cantor Index, LLC.

Relating in general to online accounts and, more particularly, to a system and method for establishing and providing access to various types of online accounts in order to participate in online gambling activities.

Frip: Process eliminates time-consuming paperwork activities that sometimes led to second thoughts.

ELECTRONIC BILL PRESENTMENT AND PAYMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,417,628 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/39; 32 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Using a communication network such as the Internet to allow registered users the flexibility to pay a bill by using traditional non-electronic payment methods after receiving an e-mail notification, the registered user also having the option to pay the bill electronically after receiving the e-mail by clicking on an appropriate web address embedded within that e-mail.

Frip: Options for the consumer. Something that is becoming a thing of the past.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR REMOTE DEPOSIT SERVICE; US 8,417,629 B1; 4/9/2013; Class 705/39; 23 claims; assigned to USAA.

Providing for the remote deposit of funds into a financial account from a point of purchase (POP) terminal, the funds being received from an account holder, a POP terminal referring to any combination of computing and communications functionality operable to process a financial transaction over a network connection with a remote financial institution, which might be the account holder's financial institution, the financial institution a check is drawn upon, or a financial institution associated with a POP terminal.

Frip: POP goes the weasel.SMART CARD LOADING TRANSACTIONS USING WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK; US 8,417,631 B2; 4/9/2013; Class 705/39; 16 claims; assigned to Visa International Service Association.

Relating to loading value and making purchases using a smart card in conjunction with a mobile telephone.

Frip: What’ll they think of next? Oh, they already have.

April 16, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FACILITATING TRANSFERS BETWEEN ACCOUNTS; US 8,423,440 B1; 4/16/2013; Class 705/35; 19 claims; assigned to The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Accepting a funds transfer request via the selection of an icon, by a user, wherein the icon represents a designated transfer of a predetermined amount of funds between a funding account and at least one receiving account, the method further including the transfer of the amount of funds from the funding account to the at least one receiving account.

Frip: A patent on clicking an icon. Cool.

DERIVATIVE PRODUCTS; US 8,423,446 B2; 4/16/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Relating to methods, systems, and apparatuses for the processing and clearing of derivatives.

Frip: Nothing like a narrowly defined patent.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ALLOCATING NOMINAL AND CASH AMOUNTS TO TRADES IN A NETTED TRADE; US 8,423,447 B2; 4/16/2013; Class 705/37; 40 claims; assigned to JP Morgan Chase Bank.

Bundling individual securities trades into a netted trade, transmitting the netted trade to a clearing house, receiving a settlement message from the clearing house, and allocating stock and cash amounts to individual trades in the netted trade in a manner consistent with the settlement message.

Frip: Basically, data in-data out.METHOD AND SYSTEM OF TRADING A STANDARDIZED CONTRACT; US 8,423,448 B2; 4/16/2013; Class 705/37; 9 claims; assigned to Hodgson Global Enterprises Limited (UK).

Relating to a system, method, and corresponding computer program product for trading and settling a contract that has a price based on the expectation of the rise or fall of some underlying between two specified times, both such times being after the time that the contract is first available for trading, the underlying being an asset (financial, physical, or other), basket, index, contract, other financial instrument, or other economically significant variable, including weather and geological data.

Frip: Brits cornering the market, eh ol’ chap?

CONSOLIDATED SALES, MARKETING, AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR FINANCIAL PRODUCTS; US 8,423,449 B2; 4/16/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Salient Partners, L.P.

Accepting financial product information, advisor information, and client information, allowing access to a portion of the financial product information, based on the client information, through a client computer, allowing access to another portion of the financial product information not accessible through the client computer, based on the advisor information, through an advisor computer, and tracking and reporting the advisor information and the client information through metrics.

Frip: A flowchart patent?SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING A LOAN; US 8,423,451 B1; 4/16/2013; Class 705/38; 22 claims; assigned to Fannie Mae.

Generating a first list representing a first plurality of tasks to be performed in connection with a mortgage loan application, generating a second list representing a second plurality of tasks to be performed in connection with the mortgage loan application, and reconciling the first and second lists so that the work performed during processing of the first list is reflected in the second list.

Frip: A patent on shuffling paperwork.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROCESSING A TRANSACTION; US 8,423,453 B1; 4/16/2013; Class 705/38; 26 claims; assigned to Capital One Financial Corporation.

Processing a transaction by identifying a credit account and a demand deposit account, receiving transaction data associated with a transaction initiated by an account holder with a merchant using the credit account, determining whether the transaction amount exceeds the available credit amount, requesting via a network a transfer of the transaction amount from the demand deposit account, and transferring at least a portion of the transaction amount to pay the merchant.

Frip: Wow! What a novel concept!

April 23, 2013

PATENT COMMENTS

RETIREMENT CONSUMPTION STRATEGY WITH DRAWDOWN ACCOUNT AND OPTION ANNUITY; US 8,428,974 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/4; 20 claims; assigned to Blackrock Institutional Trust Company, N.A.

Providing financial systems implementing drawdown strategies that take assets invested in a retirement fund and turn them into a cash flow by selling assets and returning them to investors, thus implementing a retirement consumption strategy that provides an investor with exposure to markets for a period of time and lifetime payments thereafter..

Frip: And if it doesn’t work out, you probably won’t know because you’ll be drooling on yourself.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OFFER TARGETING; US 8,429,006 B1; 4/23/2013; Class 705/14.1; 21 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to a system and method for offer targeting, the system and method involving a plurality of groups, an offer counter for each group, and the assigning of a plurality of offers, in a predetermined order, to the plurality of groups.

Frip: Maybe you should stick to basic finance, JP. Then there might not be anymore London Whales to besmirch your rep.

ACCOUNTS PAYABLE PROCESS; US 8,429,037 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/30; 16 claims; assigned to The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Relating to systems and techniques for automatically matching client-specific vendor or purchase order information against invoices received from the client's vendors, aspects of the invention including a database designed to warehouse a client's vendor profiles and purchase order information and technologies that conduct multi-dimensional matching within specific parameters.

Frip: We’re way beyond Accounting 101. Or maybe not.

METHODS FOR PERFORMING DATA PROCESSING OPERATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH SECURITIES AND SECURITY STRUCTURES; US 8,429,042 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/35; 18 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Relating to a computer-implementable method for performing data processing operations associated with a security, the method involving structuring the security to include a convertible note convertible into a fixed number of shares of common stock of the issuer, the convertible note having a maturity and paying interest, the note not being convertible if the price of the share of common stock of the issuer is less than a predetermined threshold percentage of the conversion price.

Frip: Haven’t convertible notes been around for awhile?

FINANCIAL DATA PROCESSOR SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING EQUITY-CREDIT LINKED INVESTMENT VEHICLES; US 8,429,043 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/35; 32 claims; assigned to Barclays Capital Inc.

Directed to a synthetic corporate exchangeable note linked to the equity return and credit of select third parties, and the systems for implementing the creation and use of the vehicle for investment purposes.

Frip: Is this a better investment than the gold funds being hawked by shysters on late night TV?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING EMPLOYER-SPONSORED RETIREMENT PLAN; US 8,429,052 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/36R; 24 claims; assigned to Lincoln National Life Insurance Company.

Relating to methods and systems for calculating and administering lifetime income distributions, both fixed and variable, from employer-sponsored retirement plans, these methods and systems in certain embodiments calculating and administering the distribution of a plan participant's account balance in a manner that may include a lifetime income guarantee for the life of the participant and, if elected, for the joint lives of the participant and the participant's spouse or other designee, with or without minimum income guarantees, while the participant maintains access to the account value.

Frip: And you have to make these decisions as the dark cloud of aging slowing descends over your deteriorating mind.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CREATION, ISSUANCE, REDEMPTION, CONVERSION, OFFERING, TRADING, AND CLEARING A DEBT OBLIGATION CONVERTIBLE INTO CASH PLUS A SPOT FOREIGN EXCHANGE CONTRACT THAT IS PRICED TO REFLECT THE VALUE OF THE DEBT OBLIGATION IN A BASE CURRENCY IN RELATION TO THE VALUE OF A REFERENCE CURRENCY; US 8,429,057 B1; 4/23/2013; Class 705/37; 21 claims; assigned to Curex Innovations LLC.

Relating to computer-based systems and methods for creating, issuing, offering, trading, redeeming, converting, and clearing a novel debt obligation convertible into cash plus a foreign exchange (FX) spot or forward contract that is priced to reflect the value of the debt obligation in a base currency in relation to the value of a reference currency, the convertible debt obligations being referred to by the trade name C-Notes™.

Frip: The title says it all. No need for a specification.

PAIRED BASIS SWAP RISK AND CREDIT MITIGATION SYSTEM AND COLLATERAL MINIMIZATION SYSTEM; US 8,429,058 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/37; 68 claims; assigned to VMAC, LLC.

Generally directed to a system that can be used by counterparties to forward contracts to mitigate the risk of market losses in the event of credit default by counterparties, the system being premised upon a paired commodity swap concept whereby participants to forward contracts enter into equal and off-setting commodity swaps with a Swap Entity as a counterparty, the System being designed so that it will always maintain a flat book with respect to commodity swap positions and will have rights to terminate positions in order to re-balance its book.

Frip: Way more than Aunt Maude needs to know about swaps, which are what, by the way?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING ELECTRONIC OPTION TRADING BANDWIDTH REDUCTION AND ELECTRONIC OPTION RISK MANAGEMENT AND ASSESSMENT FOR MULTI-MARKET ELECTRONIC TRADING; US 8,429,059 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/37; 9 claims; assigned to Rosenthal Collins Group, LLC.

Splitting data streams including electronic option trading information into plural individual data streams by a server network device or one or more network interface cards (NICs), or both, the individual data streams being made available to target network devices using less network bandwidth and fewer processing cycles that would be required to process the whole data including the electronic option trading information, and providing an "integrated viewpoint" that aggregates an option trader's activities across all electronic option trading accounts and option trading exchanges.

Frip: And the kitchen sink!HEDGING RISK IN AN INVESTMENT VEHICLE; US 8,429,060 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/37; 36 claims; assigned to Black Diamond Capital Management, L.L.C.

Purchasing an option for protection of cash flows to be paid by the investment vehicle to designated investors, selling an option offsetting the purchased option at least in part, and structuring the cash flows and security priorities of the investment vehicle so that the purchased option protects the protected investors and the proceeds of the sale of the sold option offsets the cost of the purchased option for benefit of non-protected investors.

Frip: So, who’s the loser?AGGREGATED TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,429,066 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Hosting a collection of one or more electronic exchanges, the collection of electronic exchanges being made up of separately designated exchanges under one or more authorizing and regulating bodies, the trading system receiving from traders bids to purchase and offers to sell tradeable objects and directing the bids and offers to the appropriate exchange where the bids and offers may be automatically matched in the corresponding market.

Frip: TTI, moving beyond graphic displays to control the whole shebang.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING MICROTRANSACTIONS; US 8,429,069 B1; 4/23/2013; Class 705/38; 20 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing a variety of techniques for processing microtransactions, a result being smaller fees for such transactions.

Frip: Hard to think of JP being involved with microtransactions.

MOBILE DEVICE CREDIT ACCOUNT; US 8,429,071 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to Wells Fargo, N.A.

Providing for a mobile communication device (MCD) credit account and financial credit transactions by way of such an MCD,

Frip: What if you don’t have one of them thar smart phones?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING MICROTRANSACTIONS; US 8,429,072 B1; 4/23/2013; Class 705/39; 13 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Determining whether a transaction amount is below the microtransaction threshold amount and it not then processing the transaction information through a first interchange entity as a non-microtransaction, and if so then routing the transaction request to a second interchange entity and processing the transaction request to effect the microtransaction between the customer and the merchant, wherein the second interchange entity processes the microtransaction by debiting or crediting at least a portion of the transaction amount to a pool of funds that has been established for microtransactions.

Frip: JP gets a second microtransaction patent! Does it know something we don’t know?

PRIVATE LABEL PROMOTION CARD SYSTEM, PROGRAM PRODUCT, AND ASSOCIATED COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHODS; US 8,429,074 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/40; 17 claims; assigned to Metabank.

Relating to systems, computer program products, and associated computer-implemented methods of providing rebates, in-store credit, and other promotions via a bank or private label promotion card, as well as a bank card product, embodiments of the invention being a promotion card whose value is managed by the bank offering the retailer promotion card thus allowing retailers to avoid the long-term carrying of liabilities and the associated negative effects on the balance sheet.

Frip: Avoiding them nasty escheat laws.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FUNDING A COLLECTIVE ACCOUNT; US 8,429,076 B1; 4/23/2013; Class 705/41; 16 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Funding a collective account such as a charitable account by issuing a plurality of financial instruments, linking the financial instruments to the collective account, aggregating individual financial instrument usage, calculating a bonus or other reward based on the aggregate financial instrument usage, and funding or distributing the reward to the collective account, the product allowing members of a civic, charitable, political, or other entity to generate collective rewards or other benefits that may be attributed to the designated organization.

Frip: Isn’t there enough collectivism in the world?

WEB ENABLED BANK TELLER MACHINE; US 8,429,077 B2; 4/23/2013; Class 705/43; 15 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to an automated banking machine that is dynamically updated from a host system.

Frip: So your ATM becomes part of the Internet? Is that really wise?

OVERDRAFT PROTECTION AND FORGIVENESS; US 8,429,079 B1; 4/23/2013; Class 705/44; 8 claims; assigned to U.S. Bank National Association.

Pertaining to an overdraft protection program that provides customers with a grace period before they are charged for an overdraft of their accounts.

Frip: Patent on overdraft protection. Cool.

April 30, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSCOMMISSION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; US 8,433,629 B2; 4/30/2013; Class 705/35; 14 claims; assigned to Convergex Group, LLC.

Relating to a commission management system and method for managing soft dollar and commission recapture services over a communications network, the system and method paying the invoices from the soft dollar commission account after the client views and approves invoices online.

Frip: Aren’t soft dollars unethical if no illegal?

INTERACTIVE METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REAL-TIME FINANCIAL; US 8,433,632 B2; 4/30/2013; Class 705/36R; 5 claims; assigned to Lawson Software, Inc.

Providing financial management and control tools that allow an organization to rapidly (on weekly or monthly frequencies, for example) realign financial resources throughout the organization in response to changing market and business conditions, the method linking critical external information directly to company decision-making activities to allow a business to better align resources to capitalize upon opportunities or minimize the impact of adverse business conditions.

Frip: Data in-data out, but much too complex to summarize.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A BENEFIT PRODUCT WITH PERIODIC GUARANTEED INCOME; US 8,433,634 B1; 4/30/2013; Class 705/36R; 25 claims; assigned to Genworth Financial, Inc.

Implementing a benefit product that provides a guaranteed income amount for a participant, the benefit product generating the guaranteed income amount by participating in a plurality of guaranteed income products (GI products).

Frip: Producing a guaranteed amount by participating in guaranteed products? This thing ain’t circular, is it?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVED ORDER ENTRY USING MARKET DEPTH; US 8,433,637 B2; 4/30/2013; Class 705/36R; 24 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Using market depth information on the hedging side to make more intelligent decisions about the order entry on the non-hedging side, under one embodiment the order on the non-hedging side being broken up into multiple orders such that each order is automatically worked at cascading price levels, the quantity of each order being based on the desired quantity to be hedged and the market depth information on the hedging side.

Frip: Trading jargon is really cool.

PROCESS FOR COMPREHENSIVE FINANCIAL AND ESTATE PLANNING WITH LIFE INSURANCE PRODUCT; US 8,433,639 B2; 4/30/2013; Class 705/37; 78 claims; assigned to Future System Advisors, LLC.

Generating a financial and liquidity estate plan for a client and a life insurance product for use therewith, the process including analysis and categorization of the client's assets and generation of a plan for re-allocating the client's assets among the defined categories based on liquidity analyzes, the product being a pre-paid variable life insurance product having a death benefit that varies daily as a function of gains and losses on the invested cash value of the product.

Frip: Daily variation of value. Just what an ol’ codger needs to feel financially secure.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRIORITIZED DATA DELIVERY IN AN ELECTRONIC TRADING ENVIRONMENT; US 8,433,642 B2; 4/30/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Storing low priority data until higher priority data appears, then sending the two together as one message to a user.

Frip: What if no higher priority data ever appears?

AUCTION WITH INTEREST RATE BIDDING; US 8,433,643 B2; 4/30/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to eBay Inc.

Receiving offers from bidders in a bid receiving process to transact a financial instrument, the offers being expressed as offered interest rates at which the respective bidders are willing to transact the financial instrument, the bid receiving process being utilized in a declining auction characterized by reducing a published interest rate at which the financial instrument is being offered for sale, and determining whether at least one of the offers satisfies a transaction criterion.

Frip: Where do you bank? eBay.PROCEDURAL ORDER PROCESSING; US 8,433,644 B2; 4/30/2013; Class 705/37; 25 claims; assigned to PDQ Enterprises LLC.

Delaying an order en route to a marketplace so that a procedure can determine whether to generate a spawned order, the spawned order being sent to a destination for execution essentially contemporaneously with the sending of the en route order, the spawned order providing additional liquidity.

Frip: Ever tried the pick-up line, “Wanna spawn”? Doesn’t work very well.

COLLATERALIZED LOANS WITH PERIODIC DRAWS SUBJECT TO A TRIGGERING EVENT; US 8,433,649 B2; 4/30/2013; Class 705/38; 21 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Receiving funds from a client and establishing a credit line collateralized by the funds, periodically dispensing an amount from the credit line upon occurrence of a predetermined event such as the client's attainment of a certain age and until the death of the client, and releasing any remaining funds to, for example, the client's estate.

Frip: In the end, we’re all belly up.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING INTERNET PAYMENTS USING THE ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER NETWORK; US 8,433,652 B2; 4/30/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to systems and methods for conducting electronic commerce, and more particularly to systems and method in which a payor pushes electronic credits to a payee using an Electronic Funds Transfer system.

Frip: JP, you ain’t been gettin’ good press lately.

May 7, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSMETHOD FOR PROVIDING RETIREMENT INCOME USING MUTUAL FUND LONGEVITY INSURANCE; US 8,438,046 B2; 5/7/2013; Class 705/4; 2 claims; assigned to The Prudential Insurance Company of America.

Providing a longevity product that insures against the early exhaustion or termination of a mutual fund, superannuation, or poor market performance of the mutual fund, the product being funded using a qualified annuity, a Roth Individual Retirement Annuity (IRA), or a non-qualified annuity to provide tax advantages, retirement income being provided for the retiree beginning at retirement, periodic withdrawals being taken from the mutual fund and invested in the longevity product, and at a threshold age the retiree being able to choose to receive income from the longevity product or optionally if sufficient income is available from the mutual fund, being able to continue to receive income from the mutual fund.

Frip: Dying sure is complicated.SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING CUSTOMERS WITH SEAMLESS ENTRY TO A REMOTE SERVER; US 8,438,086 B2; 5/7/2013; Class 705/35; 35 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing customers of a host service provider or host server with a seamless experience, allowing them to access remote network services, which typically require their own username, password, and session management application, via a single login to the host service provider.

Frip: Ever had a “seamless experience”?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTRACTING PRODUCER MILK ON A CLASS III BASIS; US 8,438,093 B1; 5/7/2013; Class 705/36; 16 claims; assigned to Wells Enterprises, Inc.

Enabling a Class II handler to offer to its customers a way to transparently hedge (or set) its milk price as a component of its finished goods cost in a fashion that is correlated in accordance to all FASB and Sarbanes Oxley financial reporting requirements.

Frip: Milk and FASB. And you thought only a cow was involved.

INDEX-LINKED NOTES WITH PERIODIC COUPONS SUBJECT TO A TRIGGERING EVENT; US 8,438,090 B2; 5/7/2013; Class 705/36R; 21 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Providing notes allowing a purchaser to purchase a note and receive periodic coupons returned on the note as long as a triggering event does not occur, the size of the periodic coupons being tied in some manner to a financial index such as the Bloomberg index, the S&P 500, or the like.

Frip: Is something new in finance?

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CREATING AND TRADING DERIVATIVE INVESTMENT PRODUCTS BASED ON A SKEW INDEX; US 8,438,094 B2; 5/7/2013; Class 705/36R; 31 claims; assigned to Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated.

Providing systems and methods for creating and disseminating a SKEW index based on a statistical property reflecting the skewness of an underlying asset, and creating and trading derivative investment products based on the SKEW index.

Frip: Skewness. Is there a statistician in the house?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MAINTAINING THE VIABILITY OF A GOOD-UNTIL-BETTERED ORDER TYPE IN ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEMS; US 8,438,097 B2; 5/7/2013; Class 705/37; 41 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Providing a new order type that is a modification of a conventional good-until-bettered order type, the modification involving instructions that specify a good-until-bettered increment value, duration, or both.

Frip: So good-until-bettered, but by at least a specified amount. And you get a patent to boot.

INVESTMENT FUNDS ENABLING A BOND LADDERING STRATEGY; US 8,438,100 B2; 5/7/2013; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to BlackRock Fund Advisors.

Relating to financial systems that enable an investor to create bond laddering strategies, and other strategies that typically involve individual fixed-income securities, through a series of open-ended funds (such as exchange traded funds or mutual funds) that hold fixed-income securities, bond laddering being an investment technique in which an investor purchases multiple bonds (or other types of fixed-income securities) having different maturity dates.

Frip: Bond laddering. Throw around a cool term, get a patent.

PROCESSING BINARY OPTIONS IN FUTURE EXCHANGE CLEARING; US 8,438,102 B2; 5/7/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Treating or process binary options (also called digital options) similar to standard options on a non-tradeable cash-settled underlying futures contract, a hypothetical instrument, referred to as a book instrument, being created, the book instrument having an expiration date after the expiration of the binary option, and more.

Frip: Way inside baseball stuff.USING A TRANSACTION CARD ACCOUNT TO MAKE RECURRING LOAN PAYMENTS; US 8,438,104 B2; 5/7/2013; Class 705/38; 15 claims; assigned to American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

Providing a method for using a transaction card account to make recurring loan payments.

Frip: Duh.

MEDICAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS WITH INVESTMENT AND LOAN-ACCOUNT ACCESS; US 8,438,106 B2; 5/7/2013; Class 705/39; 23 claims; assigned to Alegeus Technologies LLC.

Providing methods and systems of managing a medical savings account that comprises funds invested in each of a plurality of investment accounts.

Frip: But Doc, I’ve got a medical savings account. Please lance my boil.

CONDUCTING FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS BASED ON IDENTIFICATION OF INDIVIDUALS IN AN AUGMENTED REALITY ENVIRONMENT; US 8,438,110 B2; 5/7/2013; Class 705/44; 22 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Capturing a video stream using a mobile computing device, analyzing the video stream to distinguish between individuals and objects, identifying an individual in the video stream, authenticating the identity of the individual, and conducting the transaction after the individual is authenticated.

Frip: Big Bro has got you in its sights.

TOKEN BASED NEW DIGITAL CASH PROTOCOLS; US 8,438,116 B2; 5/7/2013; Class 705/67; 13 claims; assigned to King Fahd University of Pertroleum and Minerals (Saudi Arabia).

Employing two pairs of private and public keys, one pair linked to the real identity of the user and a second pair linked to the pseudonym identity of the user, a bank receiving a request for an amount of digital cash from the user and generating a request for a digital cash token corresponding to the requested amount, and an issuer of digital cash issuing the digital cash token in response to the request from the bank, wherein the first pair of keys is used to authenticate the user with the bank and to encrypt information sent to the user from the bank and the second pair of keys is used to authenticate the user with the issuer of digital cash and to encrypt information sent to the user from the issuer of digital cash.

Frip: Let’s see, a decent hacker might take, oh, 90 seconds to break this baby?

May 14, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSYSTEM AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING FINANCIAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION OVER A NETWORK; US 8,442,872 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/26.4; 15 claims; assigned to Capital One Financial Corporation.

Enabling a financial account issuer to provide an application to a customer's computer system over a network, the application being configured to provide various messages associated with the customer's financial account while the customer browses web sites, the messages being configured to provide interactive and dynamically changing account status information based on attempted purchases of goods or services by the customer at merchants' web sites, the application also being configured to provide rating information associated with web sites accessed by the customer.

Frip: More stuff to slow down the operation of your computer.

ALGORITHMIC TRADING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,442,885 B1; 5/14/2013; Class 705/35; 11 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing a computerized algorithmic trading management system for facilitating electronic market participation of traders, the system comprising (1) a sequence construction module providing conditional user interface features for allowing traders to construct combined algorithms and sequences to structure trading orders, (2) sequence modification components, and (3) operator intervention tools for allowing traders to manually influence algorithm execution through a user interface.

Frip: Great. More algorithms for Wall Street to play games with.

APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING A RISK EVALUATION PRODUCT BUILDER USER INTERFACE; US 8,442,893 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/36R; 18 claims; assigned to Insight Catastrophe Solutions, LLC.

Providing a risk evaluation product builder that allows users to manipulate visual tools to generate a data-structure comprising an embodiment of a risk rating scheme and insurance quoting product.

Frip: Has something to do with reinsurance. Yawn.

GUARANTEED MERCHANT PAYMENT IN A CARD-NOT-PRESENT TRANSACTION; US 8,442,894 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/36R; 27 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to methods, systems, apparatus, and computer program products for merchant payment in card-not-present transactions and, more particularly, guaranteeing merchant payment in a card-not-present transaction based on authentication of the customer.

Frip: My card is not present but gimme some stuff anyway.

SECURITIZATION OF SALES PARTICIPATION CERTIFICATES; US 8,442,897 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/37; 13 claims; assigned to Tykhe, LLC.

Relating to financial products providing a return that is a function of future sales, revenues, or both, preferably gross sales, revenues, or both, over a specified period of time, securitization in such cases representing a property interest in the stream of payments representing an organization's sales or revenues.

Frip: Securitization spreads.

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MARKET CLEARANCE; US 8,442,898 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/37; 31 claims; assigned to Aggregation Commerce, LLC.

Relating to electronic commerce over a network, such as the Internet or the public telephone network, and more specifically, to methods and systems for market clearance that aggregate demand and supply in a marketplace and that generate accurate real-time valuable marketplace information, the basic components of a market-clearing mechanism consistent with the present invention are offers, pools, straddles, and locks.

Frip: Offers, pools, straddles, and locks. Wasn’t there a grunge group going by that name back in the ‘70s?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ISSUING AND MAINTAINING A BOND; US 8,442,899 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Issuing a bond to an investor in exchange for value, wherein the bond is associated with (i) a spread to a pre-determined index, (ii) a nominal maturity date, (iii) an initial mandatory tender date prior to the nominal maturity date, and (iv) an option for the investor to extend the initial mandatory tender date during an initial decision period, receiving during the initial decision period an indication that the investor will extend the initial mandatory tender date, and arranging for the initial mandatory tender date to be extended such that the bond will be associated with a subsequent option for the investor to extend an extended tender date during a subsequent decision period.

Frip: A bond that maybe never matures?

FUEL OFFERING AND PURCHASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; US 8,442,901 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Relating generally to commodity management systems and more particularly to apparatuses, systems, and methods for facilitating the pricing, sales, and delivery of a commodity or a commodity derivative to a customer.

Frip: Goldman, into the fuel business.

SYSTEM, METHOD AND PROGRAM FOR PREVENTING GAMING IN A TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,442,902 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to ITG Software Solutions, Inc.

Receiving an order from a trader to trade securities in an alternative trading system, determining if gaming is occurring, setting a price collar for the order, and submitting the order to the alternative trading system with the price collar.

Frip: The Spec says “gaming is prevalent with electronic trading.” No s___, Sherlock.

METHOD OF COLLECTING DELINQUENT SPECIALIZED DEBT; US 8,442,903 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/37; 1 claim.

Providing an internet-based system for the organization and collection of specialized debt that is delinquent, the focus being healthcare debt.

Frip: Going after those deadbeats who allegedly can’t pay for life-saving operations.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ASSET VALUATION; US 8,442,908 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/38; 22 claims; assigned to MCMCAP Partners, LLC.

Relating to financial systems and, more specifically, to systems and methods for value-added analysis, administration and execution of asset valuation, whole loan pricing, and inventory management, the invention offering various modular components as well as an integrated platform.

Frip: Patent on the whole back office operation.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR A PREPAID INTEREST CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT; US 8,442,911 B1; 5/14/2013; Class 705/39; 17 claims; assigned to USAA.

Providing a system for charging fees to a card holder of a credit card account, the system maybe comprising at least one subsystem that calculates a prepaid interest amount and at least one subsystem that charges the prepaid interest amount to the credit card account in lieu of charging interest on the actual balance of the account.

Frip: USAA is worried that credit card issuers aren’t getting sufficient interest revenue.

EVOLVING PAYMENT DEVICE; US 8,442,913 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/41; 11 claims; assigned to Visa International Service Association.

Through a computer apparatus that consists of a processor and a computer-readable medium, providing a system that allows a payment token of some sort to evolve into a full-fledged payment device such as a credit card.

Frip: Roping in the untainted.VIRTUAL WALLET ACCOUNT WITH AUTOMATIC-LOADING; US 8,442,914 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/41; 17 claims; assigned to MasterCard International Incorporated.

Process includes receiving, at a virtual wallet server, a virtual wallet account number and payment transaction details that includes a payment amount, and then mapping the virtual wallet account number to at least one funding account associated with a consumer.

Frip: Don’t know nothing about “virtual wallets.” Do know that real wallet is empty.

TOKEN BASED NEW DIGITAL CASH PROTOCOLS WITH COMBINED BLIND DIGITAL SIGNATURE AND PSEUDONYM AUTHENTICATION; US 8,442,919 B2; 5/14/2013; Class 705/69; 9 claims; assigned to King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Saudi Arabia).

Providing digital cash tokens by providing a user with at least two pairs of keys including a master pair having a private and a public key and at least a pseudonym pair having a private and public key, blinding digital signatures based on the master pair of keys for withdrawal of digital cash from a bank account of the user associated with a real identity of the user, issuing digital cash into digital cash tokens from a digital cash issuer using the pseudonym pair or keys, and spending the digital cash tokens using the pseudonym pair of keys.

Frip: Whatever.May 21, 2013

PATENT COMMENTS

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSOCIATING FINANCIAL TRANSACTION DATA WITH USER'S PROJECT DATA USING A PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE; US 8,447,666 B1; 5/21/2013; Class 705/28; 14 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Comprising, in one form, an expense reporting system for viewing and manipulating a user's financial transaction data, the system including a user's financial transaction data hosted in a data storage unit, addressable on a network, and accessible by a remote user on a user interface unit having a user input means and a display, and an expense reporting module having a graphical user interface

Frip: Giving consumers all the tools they need, and probably more.

METHODS, SYSTEMS AND ARTICLES FOR FACILITATING LOANS USING INCOME TAX REFUNDS; US 8,447,667 B1; 5/21/2013; Class 705/31; 22 claims; assigned to Intuit Inc.

Providing systems, methods, and articles for online computerized methods and systems for facilitating a loan between a borrower and a lender in a financial services system having a loan processing application integrated with a tax return preparation application, in which a lender's tax refund is used to fund the loan.

Frip: lending, borrowing, paying taxes, all same-same.

DERIVATIVE PRODUCTS; US 8,447,679 B2; 5/21/2013; Class 705/35; 16 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Providing systems and methods for more conveniently processing and clearing derivative products with a binary outcome and having a final settlement based on a triggering event.

Frip: “Binary outcome” and “triggering event.” Sounds like the hoped-for results of a first date.

BUSINESS TRANSACTION FACILITATION SYSTEM; US 8,447,680 B2; 5/21/2013; Class 705/35; 32 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

The systems, methods, and computer program products of the present invention allow a business to maintain, manage, and administer data and documents in a centralized repository that can be shared with multiple businesses and entities with which the company interacts, and more.

Frip: BofA, offering the proverbial kitchen sink.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADMINISTERING A DESTINATION FUND HAVING AN ASSOCIATED GUARANTEE; US 8,447,681 B2; 5/21/2013; Class 705/36; 24 claims; assigned to Hartford Fire Insurance Company.

Administering a destination fund having a guarantee wrapper that provides an income stream for life to one or more investors, the destination fund having a selected mix of equities and fixed income investments to provide for enhanced returns throughout retirement for the investor and to provide income stream flexibility throughout the lifetime of the investor. Frip: A guarantee, eh? Guess you can’t beat that.

METHOD OF OPERATING A VENTURE BUSINESS; US 8,447,682 B2; 5/21/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims.

Providing a method of operating a venture capital investment business, including establishing a business entity that establishes an investment fund and a fund managing entity thereof that attends to administrative matters relating thereto and makes investment decisions for the fund, which has investors that with the fund managing entity provide capital contributions to the fund that the fund utilizes to invest in portfolio entities, and more.

Frip: Them venture capitalists, do they pay taxes?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR NACHA COMPLIANT ACH TRANSFERS USING AN AUTOMATED VOICE RESPONSE SYSTEM; US 8,447,691 B2; 5/21/2013; Class 705/42; 40 claims; assigned to HSBC Card Services, Inc.

Receiving a request, through a phone call from a customer, to initiate an ACH transfer, the request including at least an account identifier and a payment amount, confirming the ACH transfer using speech recognition software and an interactive voice response unit, wherein the customer's identity, the date of transfer, the account identifier, the payment amount, a contact phone number, and the date of the confirmation, are confirmed by the customer using a verbal response recognized by the speech recognition software, the method also including recording the verbal response of the customer in a sound file, tagging the sound file with at least the field of an account identifier, and storing the sound file for at least two years in a data repository.

Frip: An end to paperwork.

PERSONAL FINANCIAL NETWORK; US 8,447,692 B2; 5/21/2013; Class 705/42; 26 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing systems and methods wherein an average family or self-defined group is able to link together their financial accounts to simplify administering to their financial affairs.

Frip: BofA, watching out for us average Joes’.

COMMODITY FUTURES INDEX AND METHODS AND SYSTEMS OF TRADING IN FUTURES CONTRACTS THAT MINIMIZE TURNOVER AND TRANSACTIONS COSTS; US 8,447,694 B2; 5/21/2013; Class 705/44; 28 claims; assigned to Altenative Investment Analytics LLC.

Relating to methods and systems for reducing transaction costs and minimizing turnover in the trading of futures contracts, the invention describing an algorithm whose output is a unique method of investing in futures contracts that reduces the rate of turnover, and thus the cost of trading, of certain common trading strategies, the primary application of the method being to a class of strategies referred to as indexing strategies that incorporate a dynamic asset allocation approach using futures contracts.

Frip: The proverbial algorithm makes its appearance.

May 28, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSMETHODS, SYSTEMS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR FACILITATING NON-TRANSPARENT EXCHANGE-TRADED FUND SHARE CREATIONS AND REDEMPTIONS WITH OPTIONAL EARLY CUTOFF TIMES; US 8,452,682 B1; 5/28/2013; Class 705/36R; 77 claims; assigned to Navigate Fund Solutions LLC.

Providing risk information and cost estimation tools to traders in exchange-traded fund shares, the disclosed processes develop, calculate, and publish supplemental information using confidential fund data to support trading in exchange-traded funds with portfolios that are not totally transparent and that use portfolio composition files that are not identical to the fund portfolios.

Frip: Confidential data. Whoo.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAKING A SYNTHETIC CASH ADVANCE USING A PURCHASE PAYMENT EXCHANGE; US 8,452,683 B2; 5/28/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims.

Allowing a credit cardholder to use his or her credit card to pay a bill or purchase an item (collectively "financial transaction") for a second person in exchange for the second person paying a sum of money (for example. making an electronic funds transfer) to the cardholder that is less than the amount charged to the cardholder's credit card to complete the second person's financial transaction, the purchase-payment exchange effectively transforming a credit card purchase into a synthetic cash advance at the cardholder's credit card's lower purchase interest rate.

Frip: So, answer me that.FIDUCIARY SCREENER TEST AND BENEFIT PLAN SELECTION PROCESS: MORE GENERALIZED APPLICATIONS; US 8,452,685 B2; 5/28/2013; Class 705/36R; 14 claims.

Providing a process for enrolling individual participants in financial products or services or a means of determining knowledge of and competency regarding service provider advice using performance scores from a psychometric testing instrument to determine whether individual participants understand the risks of their choices, the screening process benefiting the individual by limiting choices where risks are not properly understood and affording investment custodians, investment advisors, or other providers a mechanism to demonstrate that they have properly exercised their fiduciary duty.

Frip: Do you really think you can legally limit investment choices for dumb a__es?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING SECURITY TO A GAME CONTROLLER DEVICE FOR ELECTRONIC TRADING; US 8,452,695 B2; 5/28/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Managing electronic trading by defining a plurality of controller signal relationships, each controller signal relationship associating one or more of a plurality of game controller signals with one of a plurality of trading system commands associated with the electronic trading of financial instruments, and so on.

Frip: Electronic trading with game controllers. How appropriate.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING CREDIT RISK FOR INVESTMENT PORTFOLIOS; US 8,452,698 B2; 5/28/2013; Class 705/38; 12 claims; assigned to BlackRock, Inc.

Enabling a portfolio manager to obtain credit approval from a credit analyst for an issuer of securities, the system including a relational database containing subjective and objective issuer information and graphical user interfaces for portfolio managers and credit analysts to submit, review, and resolve credit approval requests. Frip: Give everybody credit.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING AN INTEREST-BEARING INSTRUMENT; US 8,452,700 B2; 5/28/2013; Class 705/38; 12 claims.

Allowing a financial instrument to be structured so that the underlying borrowed principal is callable, putable, or both, a preferred embodiment involving a Range Accrual Mortgage (RAM) structured so that the underlying borrowed principal is a mortgage that is callable, putable, or both, the result being achieved by embedding into the loan structure a rate put option (RPO).

Frip: Head hurt.SYSTEM, METHOD AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR MINIMIZING FUND MOVEMENTS; US 8,452,702 B1; 5/28/2013; Class 705/39; 8 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Relating to a system, method, and program product for minimizing fund movements such as wire or other transfers in a sweep program.

Frip: Trying to outsmart the FDIC?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING INTERNET PAYMENTS USING THE ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER NETWORK; US 8,452,703 B2; 5/28/2013; Class 705/39; 12 claims; assigned to JP Morgan Chase Bank, NA.

Relating to systems and methods for conducting electronic commerce, and more particularly to systems and method in which a payor pushes electronic credits to a payee using an Electronic Funds Transfer system.

Frip: Internet payments, electronic funds transfers, it’s all becoming too fuzzy for us old folks.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ON-LINE PAYMENTS; US 8,452,704 B2; 5/28/2013; Class 705/40; 62 claims; assigned to Citicorp Credit Services, Inc.

Enabling a user to make, for example, on-line payments, on-line and off-line purchases, cash withdrawals at an ATM, credit card account payments, bill payments, and international payments with funds in a transaction account or a line of credit associated with the transaction account.

Frip: Have JP Morgan (above) and Citicorp just been awarded patents for essentially the same thing?

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR VERIFYING CUSTOMER SUPPLIED FINANCIAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION USING DEBIT AND CREDIT TRANSACTIONS; US 8,452,709 B2; 5/28/2013; Class 705/44; 25 claims; assigned to HSBC Technologies Inc.

Relating to verifying customer provided financial account information to allow the customer to perform a financial transaction, either immediately or in the future, by requiring the customer to confirm receipt of information, including, for example, verification codes using predetermined actions processes, or both.

Frip: More passwords to keep track of.

June 4, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSVIRTUAL CREDIT IN SIMULATED ENVIRONMENTS; US 8,457,991 B2; 6/4/2013; Class 705/4; 45 claims; assigned to The Invention Science Fund I, LLC.

Describing a method and system for a virtual credit arrangement that enables a user to have simulated credit transactions, feedback being communicated to the user regarding results of the simulated credit transactions and the user being provided an option of engaging in real-world financial transactions related to the virtual credit arrangement.

Frip: Sounds like a way to lose one’s virtual a__.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR EFFICIENT DELIVERY OF FINANCIAL ADVISORY SERVICES; US 8,458,003 B2; 6/4/2013; Class 705/7.13; 10 claims.

Disclosing a system comprising a set of interconnected processors for managing the delivery of financial advisory services for a plurality of financial advisory clients, in one embodiment the system managing activities and workflows during a financial planning period that is divided into a plurality of specified time periods, each associated with a substantially distinct topic.

Frip: If the invention eliminates meetings, it might actually have merit.

ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MARKETING PRODUCTS AND SERVICES; US 8,458,018 B1; 6/4/2013; Class 705/14.1; 58 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to a process and system for marketing products and services, and in particular to a process and system that allows buyers to obtain assets in exchange for promises to make future purchases of other products and services.

Frip: Promises to purchase stuff? Shouldn’t this be unethical?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRANSFERRING ELECTRONIC ACCOUNT INFORMATION; US 8,458,064 B1; 6/4/2013; Class 705/35; 34 claims; assigned to Capital One Financial Corporation.

Relating to transferring banking information, funds, and payment information from an electronic payment account at a first account provider to an electronic payment account at a second account provider.

Frip: So, computers talking to each other?

MONITORING IN AN AUTOMATED CLEARING HOUSE PROCESSING ENVIRONMENT; US 8,458,068 B2; 6/4/2013; Class 705/35; 59 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to methods, systems, apparatus, and computer program products for monitoring in an Automated Clearing House (ACH) processing environment and, more particularly, providing an application that provides for real-time monitoring of events, such as events triggering alarms, in an ACH processing environment. Frip: BofA, gettin’ its back-office stuff under the patent umbrella.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING CUSTOMERS WITH SEAMLESS ENTRY TO A REMOTE SERVER; US 8,458,070 B2; 6/4/2013; Class 705/35; 20 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing customers of a host service provider or host server with a seamless experience, allowing them to access remote network services, which typically require their own username, password, and session management application, via a single login to the host service provider.

Frip: More problems for the computer semi-literate.

INSTANTANEOUS MERCHANT INFORMATION RETRIEVAL FOR FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS; US 8,458,071 B2; 6/4/2013; Class 705/35; 10 claims; assigned to MasterCard International Incorporated.

Directed to a method and system for providing instantaneous merchant information retrieval concerning a merchant involved in a cashless transaction near-instantaneously to permit its use during transaction authorization and clearing, or in the words of claim1, a method of disambiguating ambiguous merchant identification data.

Frip: Providing instantaneous info near-instantaneously. Interesting.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FACILITATING A CONTEXT-BASED ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION REGARDING A FINANCIAL TRANSACTION; US 8,458,077 B2; 6/4/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to KCG IP Holdings LLC.

Relating to a method and system for administering an investment fund, the method and system providing techniques for context-based electronic communication regarding a financial transaction, meaning in part that certain parameters of the associated transaction are automatically attached to the communication in order to provide the users with the necessary context for the communication.

Frip: So, fewer bits and bytes equal a patent?

ALLOCATING PARTIAL PAYMENT OF A TRANSACTION AMOUNT USING AN ALLOCATION RULE; US 8,458,086 B2; 6/4/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to Lead Core Fund, L.L.C.

Facilitating commercial transactions involving the exchange of monetary value for goods, services, or other value between remote individuals, such as users of a distributed computer network or Internet users, the system providing sellers with an irrevocable method of receiving funds from a purchaser and for improving purchaser willingness to transact with an unknown party, and other stuff. Frip: Paying over the Internets.

MONEY TRANSFER SMART PHONE METHODS AND SYSTEMS; US 8,458,088 B2; 6/4/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to The Western Union Company.

Relating to money transfers utilizing smart phone technology and the transfer of funds between mobile devices, the process including the establishment of fund transfer accounts, authentication, and other stuff.

Frip: Your smart phone giving you money.

SYSTEM, METHOD AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR ADMINISTERING FUND MOVEMENTS USING DEPOSITORY INSTITUTION GROUPS; US 8,458,089 B1; 6/4/2013; Class 705/39; 21 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Relating to a system, method, and program product for administering fund movements, such as sweep programs, and in one or more embodiments, to using a method that generates data for transfers by forming depository institutions into groups based at least in part on different cutoff times for participants in the system, on depository institution types, or on both.

Frip: Is this more tweaking of the FDIC’s nose?

SECURED CHARGE CARD; US 8,458,094 B2; 6/4/2013; Class 705/44; 18 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing a secured charge card secured through a security interest in an asset that may be the available balance in an interest-bearing checking account, a brokerage account, or other type of account holding funds or assets, the available balance maybe being monitored in real-time or near real-time such that the available spending limit on the secured charge card may be floating, that is, dynamic.

Frip: Another way to get yourself into financial trouble.

LOCATION-BASED RULES FOR A FINANCIAL ACCOUNT; US 8,458,095 B2; 6/4/2013; Class 705/44; 17 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Receiving a request for a transaction from a primary user of a financial account, determining rules associated with the primary user at least one of the rules including a comparison of a location associated with the request to one or more approved locations from which the primary user is authorized to make the transaction, and processing the transaction if the rules permit.

Frip: Rule says you cannot do transaction from District of the Red Lights.

June 11, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSYSTEMS AND METHODS TO INITIATE PAYMENTS FROM ELECTRONIC DEVICES; US 8,463,650 B2; 6/11/2013; Class 21; 20 claims; assigned to Barclays Bank Delaware.

Following the calculation of a purchase amount or total for a particular purchase, broadcasting a payment request message publicly on a wireless network where the merchant and an electronic device operated by the purchaser may participate as network nodes, the purchaser interacting with an interface or visual indication to initiate a payment transaction to purchase the goods or services associated with the particular purchase.

Frip: Eliminating the need for dedicated lines? Cool.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OPERATING AN EXCHANGE TRADED FUND THAT MAKES DISTRIBUTIONS FROM SOURCES INCLUDING CAPITAL IN THE FUND TO PROVIDE A STABLE OR MINIMUM DISTRIBUTION; US 8,463,675 B1; 6/11/2013; Class 35; 7 claims; assigned to Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.

Providing a distribution to ETF shareholders according to a set of distribution rules, the distribution being paid using income derived from the capital assets of the ETF unless such income is insufficient to pay the distribution according to the rules, in which case the capital assets of the ETF are used to pay the distribution to the shareholders to the extent that income is insufficient.

Frip: And when the capital assets run out?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTION OF UNACTIVATED BANK ACCOUNT CARDS; US 8,463,681 B2; 6/11/2013; Class 35; 36 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to an inactive or dead bank card distributed in unsolicited fashion to potential customers, a dead bank card being a bank card (e.g., ATM card, debit card, check card, and the like) that contains all necessary information to be used, including a pre-assigned bank account number, and that only requires activation by the prospective new bank account customer.

Frip: Hey JP, you’re not the first on the block with this type of junk mail, and actually they’re pretty damn annoying.

UPSIDE FORWARD WITH EARLY FUNDING PROVISION; US 8,463,687 B2; 6/11/2013; Class 36R; 8 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing a forward contract with an upside return and the possibility of early valuation, the prices of the underlying financial instruments being allowed to float to a limited extent, the party taking the short position being allowed to cash out early without having to unwind the entire contract, the contact being used, for example, by a corporation wishing to raise capital using equity instruments.

Frip: High finance, apparently.SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR VENDING AND ACQUIRING ORDER PRIORITY; US 8,463,690 B2; 6/11/2013; Class 37; 19 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Providing for vending and acquiring priority in any suitable electronic trading system, such systems including, but not limited to, hit/lift exclusive priority systems, price time priority systems, order allocation systems, and request for quote systems. Frip: So much trading jargon to keep track of.

METHOD AND SYSTEM TO FACILITATE ON-LINE TRADING; US 8,463,692 B2; 6/11/2013; Class 37; 19 claims; assigned to TradeKing Group, Inc.

Relating to the field of computer software and hardware, specifically to a computer-implemented method and system to facilitate on-line trading.

Frip: No prior art?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING EXECUTABLE FUNCTIONS WITHIN A TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,463,696 B2; 6/11/2013; Class 37; 20 claims; assigned to Precision Trading IP, LLC.

Allowing users to create, edit, execute, and manage one or more sets of executable functions within a trading system, the tools further enabling a user to edit sets and subsets of hotkeys associated with functions without simultaneously effecting undesired changes in other sets and subsets of hotkeys.

Frip: Hotkeys. Cool, or not?METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING A LOAN USING EQUITY IN A NEW HOME; US 8,463,697 B1; 6/11/2013; Class 38; 26 claims; assigned to Liberty Home Equity Solutions, Inc.

Financing a transition of a borrower between ownership of a prior home to ownership of a new home in conjunction with services, the transition being associated with an increase in living situation cost of the borrower between a prior living situation cost and a new living situation cost, the new living situation cost including the new home and the services, the method alleviating cash flow burden to the borrower by allowing minimal or no monthly payments for as long as the borrower occupies the home.

Frip: The inventive financial product is called a “Cash Flow Alleviating Loan.” Would that we all could get one.

June 18, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSPROCESSING TRANSACTIONS USING A REGISTER PORTION TO TRACK TRANSACTIONS; US 8,468,071 B2; 6/18/2013; Class 705/35; 27 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing systems and methods that keep check of financial transactions by maintaining a count of the financial transactions using a register portion, in conjunction with performing authentication further to inputting transaction data from a data-bearing record that is stored in a device.

Frip: The above from the opening sentence of the Abstract indicates an in-depth command of eighth grade English.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTION OF UNACTIVATED BANK ACCOUNT CARDS; US 8,468,072 B2; 6/18/2013; Class 705/35; 22 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to an inactive or dead bank card distributed in unsolicited fashion to potential customers, a dead bank card being a bank card (e.g., ATM card, debit card, check card, and the like) that contains all necessary information to be used, including a pre-assigned bank account number, and that only requires activation by the prospective new bank account customer.

Frip: Check out US 8,463,681 B2, issued 6/11/2013, for what seems like the same patent. Is Frip the only one reading this stuff?

REJECTED CHECKS ENVELOPE AND PROCESS; US 8,468,074 B2; 6/18/2013; Class 705/35; 36 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to apparatuses, systems, and methods for the processing and settlement of rejected checks.

Frip: What?! You rejected my check? Do you know who I am?

METHOD OF MATCHING HEDGE FUNDS AND INVESTORS AND APPARATUS THEREFOR; US 8,468,078 B2; 6/18/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims.

Permitting hedge fund agents direct access to investors and qualified investors to gain access to detailed hedge fund information and agents.

Frip: A hedge fund directory?INDEX-BASED LIQUIDITY SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,468,079 B2; 6/18/2013; Class 705/36R; 39 claims; assigned to Market Shield Capital, LLC.

Providing liquidity to a small business or asset holder in return for a payment stream that comprises at least one payment that is adjustable relative to at least one relevant index. Frip: Here’s some money. Now pay me some money.

PUBLISH AND SUBSCRIBE SYSTEM INCLUDING BUFFER; US 8,468,082 B2; 6/18/2013; Class 705/36R; 13 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Relating to a system for delivering messages to a server through a buffer on a publish/subscribe system, the server likely being a live alert system that generates messages, including links that may be used to generate real-time reports when a rule or limit is violated.

Frip: Well, why not a patent?

METHODS AND INVESTMENT INSTRUMENTS FOR PERFORMING TAX-DEFERRED REAL ESTATE EXCHANGES; US 8,468,084 B2; 6/18/2013; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to American Master Lease, L.L.C.

Relating generally to methods and investment instruments for performing tax-deferred real estate transactions, and more particularly to methods and instruments for performing tax-deferred exchanges of investment real estate under 26 U.S.C. §1031.

Frip: Tax laws spawn a patent. Talk about negative feedback.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROTECTING A DEBT; US 8,468,086 B1; 6/18/2013; Class 705/38; 21 claims; assigned to USAA.

Providing techniques for providing a set-amount loan to a customer, collecting a premium payment for the protection of a debt associated with the set-amount loan, receiving information about a debt excusing event that has occurred to the customer, and terminating at least a portion of the debt associated with the set-amount loan.

Frip: Avoiding the insurance approach to protecting a debt, which can vary from state to state.

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR NETTING OF PAYMENTS AND COLLATERAL; US 8,468,087 B2; 6/18/2013; Class 705/38; 16 claims; assigned to Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation.

Relating to systems and methods, including computer program products, for netting payments and other obligations (for example, the obligation to post collateral or credit support) involving financial contracts, the systems and methods generally maximizing market liquidity and minimizing financial risk and collateral burdens of participants.

Frip: Back room stuff.

ACCOUNT OPENING COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE AND PROCESS FOR IMPLEMENTING SAME; US 8,468,090 B2; 6/18/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to HSBC Technologies Inc.

Providing, in alternative embodiments, a computer architecture, computer implemented methods, or both, for account opening, in some embodiments, the invention providing an integrated, component-based technology platform in which globally standardized, business configurable account opening processes are separate and decoupled from the user interface screens and are directly manageable by business functionality, personnel, or both.

Frip: Want to open an account? We got beaucoup ways to do it, all now protected by the umbrella of the U.S. Patent Office

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING INTERNET PAYMENTS USING THE ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER NETWORK; US 8,468,092 B2; 6/18/2013; Class 705/39; 22 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Representing a new paradigm for effectuating electronic payments that leverages existing platforms, conventional payment infrastructures, and currently available web-based technology to enable e-commerce in both the virtual and physical marketplace, the concept providing a safe, sound, and secure method that allows users (consumers) to shop on the Internet, pay bills, and pay anyone virtually anywhere, all without the consumer having to share account number information with the payee.

Frip: JP, sponging off the Internets.

June 25, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSGLOBAL TREASURY MONITORING SYSTEM; US 8,473,378 B2; 6/25/2013; Class 705/30; 21 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to managing global risk exposure by establishing shared treasury limits across a client relationship and allowing for real-time access and adjustment to such limits on a global scale.

Frip: BofA goin’ global from little somewheres in NC. Impressive.

INVESTMENT MODEL FOR FORMATION OF CAPITAL AND VALUE CREATION; US 8,473,384 B2; 6/25/2013; Class 705/35; 14 claims.

Establishing a contest entity organized to achieve a desired goal, organizing a financing entity to finance a prize associated with the contest entity, recruiting competitors to compete to achieve the desired goal, and establishing a compensation obligation between a plurality of competitors and the financing entity, such that each of the plurality of competitors assumes responsibility for the compensation obligation in order to compete to achieve the desired goal.

Frip: Here’s your opportunity to get in on the ground floor of this baby.

FINANCIAL MARKET WAGERING; US 8,473,393 B2; 6/25/2013; Class 705/35; 20 claims; assigned to Cantor Index, LLC.

Providing a method for wagering in a financial market environment that includes presenting an opportunity to make a wager based on a moving market line associated with a financial market, the end user being given an opportunity to bet on whether a financial market value will be above or below the moving market line at a designated time. Frip: So what’s the diff between this and everyday market activity?

UNIVERSAL PAYMENT PROTECTION; US 8,473,395 B1; 6/25/2013; Class 705/35; 15 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA.

Providing payment protection upon the occurrence of trigger events, the system and method including an account that may be associated with a credit card or other financial product.

Frip: Protection for Aunt Maude.DISTRIBUTION AND MAPPING OF FINANCIAL RECORDS FROM DATA STREAM; US 8,473,396 B2; 6/25/2013; Class 705/36R; 6 claims; assigned to Bloomberg L.P.

Relating to processing financial and other data, in particular to methods, computer programs, and computer systems for customized distribution of financial data for use by individual users and applications from feeds and data streams provided by financial and other data sources. Frip: Big, big data.

ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRICING TRANSACTIONS TO ACCOUNT FOR RISK; US 8,473,400 B1; 6/25/2013; Class 705/37; 13 claims; assigned to ICAP Services North America LLC.

Providing for the electronic trading of financial instruments (for example, interest rate swaps) and other items in which the credit risk associated with a transaction is captured as a price adjustment on a trade-by-trade basis.

Frip: You risky girl, therefore you pay more.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING AND SETTLING PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS RELATING TO VARIOUS FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS; US 8,473,401 B2; 6/25/2013; Class 705/37; 28 claims; assigned to CLS Services, Ltd.

Providing a system for facilitating settlement of payments relating to transactions involving financial instruments among multiple participants.

Frip: Whatever.PERPETUAL FUTURES CONTRACTS WITH PERIODIC RECKONINGS; US 8,473,402 B2; 6/25/2013; Class 705/37; 21 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Providing for a perpetual futures or derivatives contract with periodic reckoning, an embodiment including a method of receiving a new perpetual contract and managing that contract through to its termination, the perpetual futures contract maybe comprising an option to terminate the contract at recurring predetermined intervals, the exchange allowing or prohibiting exercise of the option based on particular parameters.

Frip: Just what investors need—a perpetual futures contract. Does that mean no day of reckoning?

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CREATING AND TRADING STRIPS OF FINANCIAL PRODUCTS; US 8,473,403 B2; 6/25/2013; Class 705/37; 12 claims; assigned to Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated.

Relating to electronically creating a synthetic tradable financial product that when executed causes a series of non-synthetic financial products to be executed, and additionally, relating to the electronic exchange trading systems that allow for the routing, matching, and execution of the synthetic tradable financial product (STRIP) and the related non-synthetic financial products.

Frip: Another way of bringing about financial Armageddon?

INVESTMENT STRUCTURE AND METHOD HAVING FIXED AND CONTINGENT COMPONENTS; US 8,473,408 B2; 6/25/2013; Class 705/38; 10 claims; assigned to Ssaris Advisors, LLC.

Providing an investment structure that includes investing a first portion of the funds in a fixed component generating principal plus fixed interest and a second portion of the funds in a contingent component generating contingent interest, the second portion involving stuff like limited partnerships, limited liability companies, corporations, or other limited liability entities, the fixed interest being selectively distributed or re-invested in the fixed component, and the contingent interest being re-invested in the contingent component.

Frip: Just what Aunt Maude needs!

SYSTEM FOR PERFORMING REAL-ESTATE TRANSACTIONS OVER A COMPUTER NETWORK USING PARTICIPANT TEMPLATES; US 7,343,348 C1 (9,709th) [reexamination]; 6/17/2013; Class 705/54; 10 claims; assigned to Bank of America, N.A.

Relating to methods and apparatus configured to perform online business transactions and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus configured to perform a real estate transaction over a computer network by defining the roles of participants using templates.

Frip: Ye ol’ template patent.July 2, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING DATA RELATED TO MANAGEMENT OF FINANCIAL ASSETS; US 8,478,666 B2; 7/2/2013; Class 705/30; 20 claims; assigned to Hartford Fire Insurance Company.

Providing a computer system for management of financial data relating to funds holding investments, the system including a data storage device and a server, the system’s components being an expense component, a pre-trade component, a settlement component, and an accounting component.

Frip: Did Hartford just get a patent on a flow chart?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING INITIAL OR VARIATION MARGIN VIA CUSTODY; US 8,478,679 B2; 7/2/2013; Class 705/37; 40 claims; assigned to The Bank of New York Mellon.

Providing various embodiments of a computer-implemented system and method for mitigating counterparty credit risk exposure, and in various aspects, providing a single solution combining custody and money funds management capabilities.

Frip: How the wheels grind.

HIGH SPEED PROCESSING OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION USING FPGA DEVICES; US 8,478,680 B2; 7/2/2013; Class 705/37; 55 claims; assigned to Exegy Incorporated.

Employing a reconfigurable logic device to (1) process streaming financial market data, the streaming financial market data comprising a plurality of messages representative of a plurality of offers to buy and sell a plurality of financial instruments, and (2) maintain in real-time a plurality of financial instrument order books based on the messages. Frip: For you non-geeks, FPGA is Field Programmable Gate Arrays. Got that.

SYSTEM FOR TRADING ILLIQUID ASSETS BY LIQUIDITY PROVISIONING AND BID VALUE SWAP (FINANCIAL CONDUCTIVITY); US 8,478,682 B2; 7/2/2013; Class 705/37; 6 claims.

Providing systems and methods that use provisions or infusions of liquid assets to facilitate multiparty trades wherein the provisioned liquid assets are sometimes infused into the host illiquid assets to create new semi-liquid or infused assets.

Frip: Gimme one of them semi-liquid assets, to go.

FUEL OFFERING AND PURCHASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; US 8,478,683 B2; 7/2/2013; Class 705/37; 46 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Relating generally to commodity management systems and more particularly to apparatuses, systems, and methods for facilitating the pricing, sales, and delivery of a commodity or a commodity derivative to a customer. Frip: Three patents almost same-same. Hope the attorney gave a discount.

FUEL OFFERING AND PURCHASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; US 8,478,684 B2; 7/2/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Same-same as above, almost.

Frip: Number 2.FUEL OFFERING AND PURCHASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; US 8,478,684 B2; 7/2/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Same-same as above, almost.

Frip: Number 3.

AUTOMATED TRADING SYSTEM IN AN ELECTRONIC TRADING EXCHANGE; US 8,478,687 B2; 7/2/2013; Class 705/38; 60 claims; assigned to Edge Capture, LLC.

Providing an automated trading system for use in an electronic exchange system network that includes a receiver interface that receives market price information for a first traded item from an exchange, data reference logic that outputs a transaction value for the first traded item from a data structure based on price information for a second traded item related to the first traded item, decision logic using at least a portion of the received market price information and the transaction value to generate a decision whether to submit an order for the first traded item, and an output interface for outputting a request for market transaction for one of the first traded item and the second traded item for transmission to the exchange in response to the decision logic.

Frip: All this and certainly more! Wow!

SPECIAL MATURITY ASR RECALCULATED TIMING; US 8,478,690 B2; 7/2/2013; Class 705/40; 5 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating generally to a system for and method of equity repurchase from the marketplace, and more particularly to a system for and method of stock repurchase with reduced risk to the investment bank should the repurchasing party increase its cash dividend during the term of the repurchase agreement.

Frip: Good ol’ JP, watching out for the welfare of those poor ol’ investment banks.

July 9, 2013

PATENT COMMENTS

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING RETIREMENT INCOME BENEFITS; US 8,484,055 B2; 7/9/2013; Class 705/4; 11 claims; assigned to Lincoln National Life Insurance Company.

Relating to a data processing method and system for the efficient administration of variable annuity products, including provisions for guarantees related to retirement income derived from and death benefits associated with variable annuities, in both the accumulation and distribution (or payout) phases.

Frip: More mind-numbing annuity stuff.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INCREASING CAPACITY IN AN INSURANCE SYSTEM THROUGH CAPITAL MARKET PARTICIPATION IN CELL COMPANY BASED ALTERNATIVE RISK TRANSFER STRUCTURE; US 8,484,056 B2; 7/9/2013; Class 705/4; 25 claims; assigned to Hartford Fire Insurance Company.

Relating, in various aspects, to systems, methods, and computer readable media suited for implementing a commonly administered, quota share-based multi-insurer primary insurance system, at least one insurance entity being associated with a funding entity, and portions of a claim liability or a received premium associated with at least one insurance policy being allocated among at least two insurance entities and the funding entity according to the stored quota share rates associated with the at least one insurance policy.

Frip: Huh?NETWORK AND METHOD FOR TRADING DERIVATIVES; US 8,484,103 B2; 7/9/2013; Class 705/30; 20 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Providing networks and methods where a control or network managing station in the network acts as a facilitator for the market makers and subscribers to make a trade at an Exchange, the network managing station also being able to consummate the trade between a market maker and a subscriber by matching binding quotes and orders and to clear the trade at an Exchange, the computer network for electronically trading derivatives comprising a network managing station, one or more market maker stations, one or more subscriber stations, and one or more Exchanges. Frip: Sounds like any other Exchange would be an infringer.

FINANCIAL SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A CREDIT FACILITY TO INDIVIDUALS TO COVER PRE-AUTHORIZED CHARGES; US 8,484,112 B2; 7/9/2013; Class 705/35; 22 claims; assigned to American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida.

Relating to a product that gives an individual flexible coverage options for providing, in case a covered event occurs, a benefit for the individual to at least partially cover or fund future payment commitments, the product being comprised of both credit granting elements, which may be offered by a financial institution or other credit grantor, and insurance elements, which may be offered by an insurer.

Frip: Gettin’ both credit and insurance. Can’t beat that.

MULTI-INPUT SYSTEM THAT MAKES INDEX-BASED ADJUSTMENTS; US 8,484,117 B2; 7/9/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; assigned to Market Shield Capital, LLC.

Relating to systems and methods for facilitating investment in securities tied to a common index, which may be applied to provide liquidity in small businesses. Frip: Sounds pretty fuzzy, but Frip is no expert.

STRUCTURED FINANCIAL PRODUCTS; US 8,484,116 B2; 7/9/2013; Class 705/36T; 13 claims; assigned to CD Revolution, Inc.

Providing a structured financial instrument that has a minimum deposit and a specified term, that is indexed to at least one economic indicator, that allows withdrawal of a percentage of the original deposit at a specified interval without penalty, that is insured by the FDIC, and other stuff.

Frip: Tossing that ol’ FDIC safety factor around.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXECUTION DELAYED TRADING; US 8,484,121 B2; 7/9/2013; Class 705/37; 9 claims.

Providing for trading financial instruments with an execution delay, one embodiment being (1) the receipt by a trading system from a first party of an order to trade a financial instrument, the order specifying timing information for delaying completion of the order, (2) the determination of a current market value of the financial instrument upon matching the order with a contra order of a second party, and (3) the completion of the order only if the determined market value of the financial instrument remains unchanged for an amount of time based on the timing information specified in the order.

Frip: Securities trading is a lot more complicated than you thought, eh?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR APPORTIONING TRADING ORDERS BASED ON SIZE OF DISPLAYED QUANTITIES; US 8,484,122 B2; 7/9/2013; Class 705/37; 60 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Apportioning trading orders based on size of displayed quantities, the process involving first and second orders, counterorders, and other inside baseball stuff.

Frip: Head hurt.FUEL OFFERING AND PURCHASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; US 8,484,124 B2; 7/9/2013; Class 705/37; 49 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Directed towards apparatuses, systems, and methods to facilitate the pricing, sales, and delivery of a commodity fuel to a customer, one embodiment teaching a Fuel Offer Generator that facilitates the purchase and management of fuel offerings, allowing customers interested in securing fuel to obtain an offer for fuel at lock-in prices for various tenors.

Frip: Goldman, Sachs, your local gas station. Fill’er up. Oh forgot, gas station attendants are an extinct species.

MARKET PARTICIPANT ISSUE SELECTION SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,484,125 B1; 7/9/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated.

Relating to a trading facility, such as an exchange, and a method for allocating to market participants, such as market makers, the right to quote for particular issues on an exchange.

Frip: You gots to pay to play.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VARYING ELECTRONIC SETTLEMENTS BETWEEN BUYERS AND SUPPLIERS WITH DYNAMIC DISCOUNT TERMS; US 8,484,129 B2; 7/9/2013; Class 705/39; 5 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Receiving a request to effect payment between a buyer and a seller for a transaction having established terms, exchanging messages that include an offer and acceptance of new terms for payment other than the established terms, the new terms including an adjusted amount of payment to be made at a particular time after an event associated with the transaction, and making payment under the new terms.

Frip: And that’s it?July 16, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSMETHOD FOR STRUCTURING A DEBT ISSUE UTILIZING A CLOSED BLOCK BUSINESS ENTITY; US 8,489,475 B1; 7/16/2013; Class 705/35; 26 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Establishing a holding company as an owner of a closed block business entity, wherein the holding company is a subsidiary of a parent company and further wherein an on-going business is a subsidiary of the parent company, and issuing debt from the holding company, wherein (a) the debt is issued for raising capital for the parent company and the capital is provided to the on-going business and (b) the debt is serviceable from the cash flow of the closed block business entity and the debt has a limited recourse only from the closed block business entity.

Frip: Wonder what the first patent examiner, a Mr. T. Jefferson, would say about such patents.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR RESTRUCTURING DEBT; US 8,489,480 B2; 7/16/2013; Class 705/35; 8 claims.

Creating defined debt packages and a debt restructure market, providing a computer network-based mechanism whereby the defined debt packages are placed in the debt restructure market for purchase by third-party debt buyers, and enabling and executing debt-purchase agreements that transfer ownership of the debt from the debt holder to third-party debt buyers at the front end of the debt-settlement cycle.

Frip: But what if you’re a deadbeat debtor?

TRANSFER INSTRUMENT; US 8,489,483 B1; 7/16/2013; Class 705/35; 6 claims; assigned to Citibank, N.A.

Issuing, to a recipient, a certificate which is linked to a national card account obtained by a transfer instrument issuer from an account issuer different from the transfer instrument issuer, without both issuing and providing a physical card for the national card account to the recipient of the certificate, the certificate having been purchased by a purchaser who is not also the recipient and containing all information necessary for the purchase of goods or services from any merchant who is capable of processing economic transactions involving one of the plurality national card accounts for which a physical card has issued, but without presentment of the physical card. Frip: A gift card that links to the giver’s credit card? Do you really want to do that?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR REVERSE MORTGAGE REPLICATION USING REMAINDER INTERESTS; US 8,489,484 B2; 7/16/2013; Class 705/36R; 11 claims; assigned to Guggenheim Partners, LLC.

Creating a protected remainder interest financial equity instrument on a computer, the method comprising the steps of submitting a seller to underwriting to electronically determine the seller's remaining life expectancy on the computer, purchasing a protected remainder interest of an illiquid asset from the seller leaving the seller with a life estate, and providing the seller the ability to defer selling at least a portion of the protected remainder interest at pre-specified terms electronically calculated on the computer and provided by a buyer of the protected remainder interest.

Frip: Death stuff. Creepy.METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EQUALIZING DEBT BALANCE AND FIXED ASSET VALUE IN REVERSE MORTGAGES; US 8,489,485 B2; 7/16/2013; Class 705/36R; 16 claims; assigned to Guggenheim Partners, LLC.

Relating to a method or a system designed to evaluate one or more reverse mortgage accounts to develop and offer options or mechanisms for equalizing debt balance and home value for the one or more reverse mortgage accounts to the benefit of borrowers and lenders.

Frip: More death stuff. Still creepy.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAKING POSITIONS HELD BY A TRADER FUNGIBLE; US 8,489,486 B2; 7/16/2013; Class 705/36R; 28 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Making positions held by a trader fungible by selecting a first position in a first futures contract that is deliverable and selecting a second position in a second futures contract, wherein the first and second futures contracts are traded in a first and second market, respectively, delivery obligations of the trader being eliminated by the offsetting first and the second positions.

Frip: Sounds like a major intellectual breakthrough.

CONTROLLING MARKETS DURING A STOP LOSS TRIGGER; US 8,489,488 B2; 7/16/2013; Class 705/36R; 6 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Mitigating or preventing market spikes due to the triggering, election, and trading of conditional orders, the system including an automated trading engine that performs a verification of a tradable conditional order that is triggered, to ensure that a traded price will not violate a predetermined trade threshold or existing exchange matching rules, the instrument being flagged if a potential trade price lies outside of the trade threshold, and other stuff.

Frip: Good luck with trying to control those computers.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRADING DERIVATIVES IN PENNY INCREMENTS WHILE DISSEMINATING QUOTES FOR DERIVATIVES IN NICKEL/DIME INCREMENTS; US 8,489,489 B2; 7/16/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated.

Relating to a system and method for trading derivatives in penny increments while disseminating quotes for derivatives in nickel/dime increments.

Frip: And this is desirable because. . . ?

METHOD OF MANAGING FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS, EQUIPMENT LEASE DERIVATIVES AND OTHER COLLATERAL INSTRUMENTS, DATA ARCHITECTURE, APPLICATION AND PROCESS PROGRAM; US 8,489,491 B2; 7/16/2013; Class 705/37; 14 claims; assigned to Digitech Information Systems, Inc.

Relating to a method and computer-implemented process for creating lease backed financial instrument derivatives yielding higher than market returns.

Frip: Aunt Maude, another great investment for you!

METHOD AND ARRANGEMENT FOR CHANGING MARKET MODEL IN AN AUTOMATED EXCHANGE; US 8,489,493 B2; 7/16/2013; Class 705/37; 14 claims; assigned to OMX Technology AB (Sweden).

Providing an automated exchange that is able to change the market model state among an order-driven market, a quote-driven market, or a hybrid market depending on the market model best suited for the particular financial instrument being traded at a particular time.

Frip: Them Swedes. They think they’re better than us.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR BUSINESS TO INVESTOR EXCHANGE FOR RAISING CAPITAL AND FOR CREATING A SECONDARY MARKET FOR PRIVATE EQUITY; US 8,489,494 B2; 7/16/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to NETCIRQ.

Creating a secondary market in private equities by auctioning venture-backed private equities over the Internet to qualified investors, the system also creating calls and puts on private equity.

Frip: What it you’re not a “qualified investor” but you still have access to the Internets? Can you sneak in anyway?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING POST-MATCHING TRADING; US 8,489,495 B2; 7/16/2013; Class 705/37; 7 claims; assigned to GFI Group, Inc.

Relating to trading systems and methods for trading at, or close to, the mid-price of a security, which is on or about the average of current bid and current offer prices.

Frip: Post-matching refers to trading after the end of a trading session. In case you’re wondering.

ONLINE INTERACTIVE AND PARTNER-ENHANCED CREDIT CARD; US 8,489,497 B1; 7/16/2013; Class 705/38; 25 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to a system which facilitates a credit decision during an interactive and partner-enhanced credit card application process.

Frip: “Partner-enhanced.” Isn’t that vaguely suggestively?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING A LOAN; US 8,489,498 B1; 7/16/2013; Class 705/38; 27 claims; assigned to Fannie Mae.

Relating to a computer-implemented mortgage loan application data processing system comprising a workflow engine and workflow analysis logic, the workflow engine having stored therein a list representing tasks that need to be performed in connection with a mortgage loan application associated with a lender, the workflow engine being configured to prompt users to perform the tasks and to track performance of the tasks, the workflow analysis logic including fallout prediction logic configured to receive status information from the workflow engine concerning status of the tasks that need to be performed in connection with the mortgage loan application, the workflow analysis logic being configured to predict a probability of fallout for the mortgage loan application based on the status information.

Frip: Fannie, still goin’ strong.July 23, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR PROVISION OF BANKING SERVICES; US 8,494,934 B2; 7/23/2013; Class 705/35; 15 claims; assigned to Monitise Limited (United Kingdom).

Providing banking services and more particularly the functions of the high street ATM using the mobile phone environment.

Frip: “High street ATM”? Guess it’s one of those Brit things.

METHOD, SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A VIRTUAL BANKING ENVIRONMENT IN A MERCHANT VENUE WHILE INCREASING THE DEPOSIT-BASED ASSETS OF OPTIONALLY INTERFACED TRADITIONAL BANKING INSTITUTIONS SUBJECT TO FRACTIONAL-RESERVE BANKING; US 8,494,937 B2; 7/23/2013; Class 705/35; 13 claims; assigned to Th Financial Services, Ltd.

Relating to the field of methods, systems, and apparatus for the creation of a virtual banking environment in a merchant venue, such that a merchant may act in a legally cognizable capacity akin to that of a sponsoring company, and offer and provide consumers an array of commercial transactions for the acquisition of goods and services performed without physical currency or need for such consumers to be banked, thereby attracting the full population, including the unbanked and underbanked, in a manner that increases banking reserves and fractional-reserve banking.

Frip: Wow! By-passing banks while increasing banking reserves. A virtual miracle.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CHARITABLE LIFETIME GIVING PROGRAM; US 8,494,943 B1; 7/23/2013; Class 705/36R; 12 claims; assigned to Kosmos IP I, LLC.

Relating to an investment program for a non-profit, charitable organization that pairs a donated life insurance policy with one or more annuity contracts on the same donor's life, the aggregate sum of the annuity premiums for the annuity contracts preferably equaling the death benefit payment amount of the donated life insurance policy, and the ongoing annuity payments preferably being greater than the life insurance premiums, thereby providing the charitable organization with a positive rate of return that can be much higher than conventional fixed income investments. Frip: Want to make your had hurt? Try diagramming the flow of funds here.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING OPTION SPREAD INDICATIVE QUOTES; US 8,494,947 B2; 7/23/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Providing a computer network and method for electronically trading derivatives, one preferred method of trading involving the provision of quotes information to a central server, the determination of indicative quotes for combination trades, and the provision of the non-binding, indicative quotes to market participants (which typically include subscribers, but may also include market makers).

Frip: Didn’t Dodd-Frank make derivatives illegal?

RULES ENGINE HAVING USER ACTIVATED RULES OF SELECTABLE SCOPE AND SELECTABLE OUTCOMES; US 8,494,948 B2; 7/23/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Pershing Investments, LLC.

Providing techniques for automating the handling process for customer orders and asset movement requests, especially in the securities industry, these goals being accomplished by providing a rules engine that is designed and configured (1) to prevent problems in the order handling, approval, and execution processes, (2) to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, and (3) to enforce diverse policies for different broker-dealer firms using the rules engine and to allow broker-dealer firms to flexibly tailor, in real time, their own policies appropriate to various levels of administrative hierarchy within the firm.

Frip: Don’t like the rules? Then change them in “real time.”

ELECTRONIC TRADING FOR PRINCIPAL/BROKER TRADING; US 8,494,949 B2; 7/23/2013; Class 705/37; 48 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Facilitating principal/broker trading by, amongst a bunch of other stuff, providing a database relating to trading participants in the trading system designed to indicate which traders utilize a principal/broker relationship and what, if any, limitations are placed on the activity of the broker, trading commands submitted by the broker, and counterparties in a transaction with the broker.

Frip: Favoring the one percent?

MATCHING OF TRADING ORDERS BASED ON PRIORITY; US 8,494,951 B2; 7/23/2013; Class 705/37; 30 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Relating generally to electronic trading and more specifically to a system and method for matching trading orders based upon priority.

Frip: One would hope so.INTEREST RATE SWAP COMPRESSION MATCH ENGINE; US 8,494,953 B1; 7/23/2013; Class 705/37; 27 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Allowing a market participant holding a portfolio of heterogeneous bilateral positions, such as positions in interest rate swap contracts, to net together similar but not identical positions within the portfolio, thereby reducing margin requirements, transaction fees, or both, according to criteria specified by the market participant, and which may be different from criteria specified by other market participants, wherein the overall risk exposure desired by the market participant in entering into the positions remains substantially unchanged as does the desired overall risk exposure of the counterparty market participants to those positions.

Frip: Interest rate swaps still causing trouble.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A FAIR EXCHANGE; US 8,494,954 B2; 7/23/2013; Class 705/37; 13 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing for a fair exchange to reduce potential inequities in an electronic trading environment, market data being sent from a host system to client devices through one or more synchronized local communication servers such that the data can be displayed simultaneously or nearly simultaneously at each client device, and much more.

Frip: Fair’s fair.SYSTEM, PROGRAM PRODUCT, AND COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD FOR LOADING A LOAN ON A PRE-PAID CARD; US 8,494,960 B2; 7/23/2013; Class 705/41; 12 claims; assigned to Metabank.

Providing loan proceeds to a pre-paid card.

Frip: Please say this is a defensive patent.

IMAGE AUTHENTICATION AND SECURITY SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,494,961 B1; 7/23/2013; Class 705/43; 12 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Directed to a computer-implemented authentication method for authenticating a customer using an electronic device for engaging in a transaction involving a financial institution over a network, the method perhaps including capturing an image of the customer engaging in the transaction using an image capturing device integrated with the electronic device, retrieving a stored image of the customer from an authentication database, comparing, using a comparison algorithm, the stored image with the captured image to authenticate the customer, and monitoring the captured image during the transaction for an interruption using the computer processing components and terminating the transaction if an interruption is detected.

Frip: JP, outsmarting the bad guys.

July 30, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR POINT OF USE REWARD DETERMINATION; US 8,498,898 B1; 7/30/2013; Class 705/14.3; 6 claims; assigned to Citicorp Development Center, Inc.

Allowing a group of organizations, for example, a group of transit agencies, to provide their users with a stored value smart card payment method that rewards them for actual use, the system and method including a card interface device and a smart card for storing respective reward applications, wherein the card interface device reward application retrieves transaction and reward data from the smart card and processes the data within the card interface device in order to determine a transaction reward.

Frip: Why not just a chip in the back of your hand?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSOCIATING FINANCIAL TRANSACTION DATA WITH USER'S PROJECT DATA IN CASH TRANSACTIONS; US 8,498,909 B1; 7/30/2013; Class 705/30; 23 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to an expense reporting system for viewing and manipulating a user's financial transaction data and a method for associating financial transaction data with a user's project data, the system including a user's financial transaction data hosted in a data storage unit, addressable on a network, and accessible by a remote user on a user interface unit having a user input means and a display, and an expense reporting module having a graphical user interface (GUI) allowing a user to define project category data and associate representations of the user's financial data with the user-defined project category data.

Frip: Just give the ol’ computer instructions and watch it function.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A REQUEST FOR CROSS IN A TRADE MATCHING ENGINE; US 8,498,918 B2; 7/30/2013; Class 705/37; 14 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Providing systems and methods to fulfill customer trading orders in an illiquid two-sided market, a request for cross functionality being implemented in a trading environment using a trading engine for the matching of trades involving financial instruments, such a request for cross functionally being a way to integrate the benefits of a dual bid-ask continuous trading market model with the price and quantity trade matching systems and methods. Frip: We’re really down in the trading weeds now, Folks.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,498,919 B2; 7/30/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Streaming indicative data to a trading terminal in a first communication channel, establishing a second communication channel, logically separate from the first communication channel, in response to a request from the trading terminal, wherein the second channel is configured to allow an exchange of high priority data in response to a request from the trading terminal for more information regarding the indicative data, and receiving execution data over the second communication channel.

Frip: So the invention is using two communication channels?

PUBLIC OFFERING RISK MANAGEMENT; US 8,498,925 B2; 7/30/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Relating generally to methods and systems for facilitating allocation of shares of stock issued during an initial public offering (IPO), and in particular, to methods and systems of making shares available through pre-auction and auction processes.

Frip: In other words, selecting who gets first choice. Ain’t favoritism un-American?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ENABLING TRADING OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS; US 8,498,926 B2; 7/30/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to GFI Group, Inc.

Providing a method of trading a foreign currency option on an electronic trading system, the method maybe including executing a trade of the foreign currency option between a buyer and a setter, locking the trading system with respect to the traded foreign currency option, querying the buyer whether the buyer desires to buy or sell additional volume of the option, querying the seller whether the seller desires to sell or buy additional volume of the option, and authorizing additional participants to join the trade and querying the additional participants whether each of the additional participants desires to buy or sell a volume of the option.

Frip: Sounds like quite a party, and now with a patent!

COVER-OCO FOR LEGGED ORDER; US 8,498,927 B2; 7/30/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Managing a position associated with a synthetic spread order where a status of a synthetic spread order is identified as legged, the synthetic spread order maybe having at least one child hedge order pending at an electronic exchange, and in response a bracket order being submitted to an electronic exchange for the tradeable object associated with a filled leg of the synthetic spread, the child hedge maybe being cancelled in response to execution of the bracket order.

Frip: Legged, child hedge, synthetic spread. And you argue that the financial system is not in deep do-do?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING ENHANCED ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR MULTIPLE BANKS; US 8,498,933 B1; 7/30/2013; Class 705/39; 19 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Providing systems and methods that deliver account management services to multiple participating financial institutions (including banks) so that they may offer to their customers interest-earning, deposit accounts without withdrawal restrictions, with enhanced deposit insurance, or both, the invention's management methods preferably maintaining each participating financial institution's total customer funds on deposit.

Frip: Gamin’ the ol’ FDIC.August 6, 2013

PATENT COMMENTS

METHOD AND SYSTEM USING CANDIDATE DYNAMIC DATA ELEMENTS; US 8,504,451 B2; 8/6/2013; Class 705/35; 14 claims; assigned to Visa U.S.A. Inc.

Receiving a verification value and a portion of a dynamic data element, determining candidate dynamic data elements using the portion of the dynamic data element, calculating candidate verification values using candidate dynamic data elements, and determining if the received verification value matches any of the candidate verification values, wherein the transaction is thereafter authenticated if a candidate verification value matches a candidate verification value.

Frip: Spec says this should curtail skimming and the like.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUDITING INTERNAL CONTROLS; US 8,504,452 B2; 8/6/2013; Class 705/35; 89 claims; assigned to Thomson Reuters Global Resources (Switzerland).

Relating to the provision of and tools to assist in the provision of professional services, specifically including auditing services, preparing financial statements, conducting internal and external audits of internal controls and practices, and more particularly, relating to computer-implemented tools, resources, and processes for assisting in these efforts.

Frip: Patent covers a lot of fuzzy stuff.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING MANDATORILY CONVERTIBLE SECURITIES WITH ASSOCIATED CALL OPTIONS; US 8,504,453 B1; 8/6/2013; Class 705/35; 11 claims; assigned to Citigroup Global Markets Inc.

Relating to a method and system for offering mandatorily convertible securities with associated forward purchase contracts and call options, each mandatorily convertible security combining a forward purchase contract, a mandatory portable remarketable security, and a call option to form a single investment unit, the call option providing additional capital to the issuer of the investment unit and profits to the remarketing agent handling the mandatory portable remarketable security. Frip: According to the spell checker, neither mandatorily nor remarketable are bona fide words.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PURCHASING A FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT INDEXED TO ENTERTAINMENT REVENUE; US 8,504,454 B2; 8/6/2013; Class 705/35; 42 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Forming and purchasing a securities bundle indexed to entertainment revenue, and related stuff.

Frip: Entertainment, like in strip joints?

ACQUISITION WAVE MANAGEMENT; US 8,504,455 B1; 8/6/2013; Class 705/35; 20 claims; assigned to The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Relating generally to systems, processes, tools, techniques, and strategies for managing mergers and acquisitions of corporate entities such as financial institutions, and more particularly to tools for managing and executing multiple waves of an acquisition or merger involving a first financial institution and one or more other financial institutions.

Frip: A how-to patent?FUEL OFFERING AND PURCHASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; US 8,504,465 B2; 8/6/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Relating generally to commodity management systems and more particularly to apparatuses, systems, and methods for facilitating the pricing, sales, and delivery of a commodity or a commodity derivative to a customer.

Frip: Whatever happened to the separation of banking and commerce?

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS; US 8,504,470 B1; 8/6/2013; Class 705/38; 13 claims; assigned to BT Patent LLC.

Presenting concepts and teachings for relationship banking and mobile banking to improve on the current state of e-banking and e-commerce, with useful features for both the banks (financial institutions) and consumers, the topics covered being (1) Pre-approval, Fulfillment, and Application Process, (2) Financial Products for Protection of Consumers, (3) Relationship-Based Score, (4) Application of Credit Report for a "Binding" Pre-Approval for Lending Products, (5) Deposit Slip Purchase, and (6) Reducing Frauds on Credit Cards.

Frip: Is this a patent or a term paper?

FACILITATING THE OWNERSHIP OF SOLAR-POWERED ELECTRICITY-GENERATING SYSTEMS; US 8,504,471 B2; 8/6/2013; Class 705/38; 20 claims; assigned to Morgan Stanley.

Facilitating a party's purchase, ownership, or both of an electricity-generating solar power system (for example, through the tracking and transfer of the electricity produced by the system), the party purchasing the solar power system maybe being a homeowner seeking to install the system at his or her home, the financing maybe being provided by a lender.

Frip: In short, a patent on making a loan?

CONSOLIDATED PAYMENT ACCOUNT SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,504,474 B2; 8/6/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

Relating to systems for facilitating secure payment and funding services using a pre-funded account and protecting the privacy of the transaction participants.

Frip: A number of “kitchen sink” patents this week (everything but the kitchen sink).

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ENROLLING USERS IN A PAYMENT SERVICE; US 8,504,475 B2; 8/6/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to Visa International Service Association.

Directed to systems, apparatuses, and methods for enrolling users in a payment service that enables an individual (“a presenter”) to conduct a payment transaction with another party (“an acceptor”) more efficiently in situations where the individual has multiple payment accounts, one embodiment of the invention being directed to a method comprising presenting to a user a plurality of payment accounts associated with the user, receiving from the user a selection of an alias account identifier for each of the payment accounts, and storing in a database data that associates the selected alias account identifiers with the payment accounts.

Frip: “Alias account identifier.” Keeping secrets from the NSA. Cool.

SYSTEM AND METHOD OF CERTIFYING A CHECK; US 8,504,476 B2; 8/6/2013; Class 705/42; 22 claims; assigned to NCR Corporation.

Receiving by a first computer a request from a second computer to certify a check from a payer to a payee, the check serving to withdraw funds from an account of the payer, receiving by the first computer an image file containing an image of the check from the second computer, obtaining an account number and an amount from the image file by the first computer, determining using the account number whether funds equal to the amount are in the account, and when funds equal to the amount are in the account, putting a hold on the funds equal to the amount and issuing a certification number and a password by the first computer.

Frip: What if funds are not equal but greater?

SYSTEMS, METHODS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR AUTOMATING FINANCIAL INSTITUTION CLIENT POSITIVE PAY RETURN DECISIONS; US 8,504,477 B1; 8/6/2013; Class 705/44; 33 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing systems, methods, and computer program products for automatically processing positive pay return decisions, which are financial client decisions that authorize return of a pay item, such as a check, in the event that the client determines that the pay item warrants return, such as in the instance in which the check has been fraudulently altered or the like.

Frip: I’m confused. If no patent, then must fraudulently altered checks be honored?

SYSTEMS, METHODS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR PERFORMING MASS TRANSIT MERCHANT TRANSACTIONS; US 8,504,478 B2; 8/6/2013; Class 705/44; 19 claims; assigned to American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

Providing a system, method, and computer program product for enabling access to mass transit systems using a financial transaction instrument, including reading an identifier including financial payment information from the financial transaction instrument, determining whether the identifier is stored in a database, and providing access to a holder of the financial transaction instrument based on the determining.

Frip: So, using a credit card to ride Metro (no more Smartrip card)?

ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEM SUPPORTING ANONYMOUS NEGOTIATION AND INDICATIONS OF INTEREST; US 8,504,483 B2; 8/6/2013; Class 705/74; 10 claims; assigned to Bloomberg L.P.

In accordance with one embodiment, trading stocks using an electronic trading system while supporting anonymous negotiation and maintaining the identity of the trading parties anonymous with respect to each other and with respect to users of the trading system, in this embodiment trades being executed between two users of the system (between hidden orders) and between a user of the system and a third party (between a hidden order and a public order).

Frip: Trading the NSA way.August 13, 2013

PATENT COMMENTSMETHOD FOR FUTURE PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS; US 8,510,189 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/35; 18 claims; assigned to Apollo Enterprise Solutions, Inc.

Receiving information, at a server, regarding a loan agreement debt terms, presenting received information to a debtor, providing an interactive environment enabling a debtor to modify existing terms, submitting modified terms, processing data from the available information using a rules based engine, and processing a future payment request based on at least one decision made by the rules based engine.

Frip: This debtor doesn’t want to modify terms, only eliminate them.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FINANCING ACQUISITION OF VEHICLES; US 8,510,191 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/35; 10 claims; assigned to Ford Motor Company.

Providing a method for financing acquisition of a vehicle, the method comprising receipt of a future interest in a vehicle in consideration for a future interest price upon transfer of a legal title in the vehicle in consideration for a legal title price.

Frip: Sounds just like your proverbial car salesman.

GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE RELATED TO NON-STANDARD TRADING OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS; US 8,510,192 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/35; 22 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Providing a graphical user interface that preferably includes a selectable portion of a display screen related to a financial instrument and a selectable tab for accessing a selectable portion of the display screen related to one or a plurality of non-standard settlement positions with respect to the financial instrument. Frip: The ol’ graphical display patent.

COMPUTER MANAGED RETIREMENT FUND AND METHOD FOR GENERATING INCREASED REVENUE STREAM; US 8,510,201 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/36R; 6 claims.

Relating to a managed retirement fund program in the field of financial securities to generate a stream of income for a pool of seniors as they grow older and, in particular, to a computer software administrated retirement fund program that provides an increasing stream of annual revenue to the survivors in the pool as the investors grow older.

Frip: More money as you grow older? Now there’s an invention!

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING PREFERRED STOCK CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS; US 8,510,203 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Barclays Capital, Inc.

Specifying a reference entity that is an obligor with respect to preferred securities, defining a credit event to include deferral of dividend or coupon on the preferred securities, specifying a payoff to include the preferred securities, the payoff to be made following the credit event, specifying a premium, executing an agreement with a protection buyer, and receiving the premium from the protection buyer.

Frip: So, patent on a new financial product?

SYSTEM, METHOD, AND APPARATUS FOR TRADING IN A DECENTRALIZED MARKET; US 8,510,204 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to PrivateMarkets, Inc.

Providing a system, method, and apparatus for maintaining a decentralized trading market where, for example, commodities trading can occur, and in particular, transactions are created and executed and information relating to those transactions is selectively shared with other participants compliant with preferences of an originating participant.

Frip: Big Trading? Fini.

EXCHANGE FOR DERIVATIVE PRODUCTS CONTINGENT ON ODDS-BASED MARKETS; US 8,510,205 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/37; 12 claims; assigned to Marketmaker Software Limited (Ireland).

Relating to an exchange for derivative products contingent on odds-based markets and to methods of determining the settlement price for such derivative products and of settling such derivative products.

Frip: Ya gotta dig a little, but this is about betting on sports events.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LISTING AND TRADING A FUTURES CONTRACT THAT PHYSICALLY SETTLES INTO A SWAP; US 8,510,207 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Embodiments of the invention concern a method, a system, an apparatus, and a medium storing processor-executable process steps to list a futures contract that includes terms requiring entry into a specified swap on a specified date.

Frip: Yeah, the world needs another confusing financial product.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR BLOCK TRADING; US 8,510,208 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/37; 6 claims.

Providing a method and system for trading financial instruments that reduces the leakage of trading interest when buyers and sellers of financial instruments desire to trade, one embodiment allowing traders to speculate on the hidden liquidity in the market by offering liquidity at fixed prices inferior to the NBBO (National Best Bid Offer) in exchange for rights to sweep the market for better priced quotes, another embodiment permitting liquidity providers to set their own fees, a further embodiment allowing the use of dummy orders to reduce trading interest leakage when limit orders are placed into order books, and in still another embodiment having a trading system only match liquidity taking orders with single liquidity providing orders of equal or greater in size.

Frip: Real inside baseball stuff.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTEGRATING A DARK TRADING FACILITY AND A SECURITIES EXCHANGE; US 8,510,211 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to NYBX, LLC.

Creating a new type of trading venue that will allow display and reserve orders to interact with dark orders, thus facilitating the execution of large transactions.

Frip: “Dark Trading Facility.” Ominous.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONSUMER CONTROL OVER CARD-BASED TRANSACTIONS; US 8,510,218 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/39; 13 claims; assigned to Citizens Financial Group, Inc.

Relating to a system and method for consumer control over card-based transactions and associated accounts, an interface being provided between a merchant or the merchant's bank and the bank or banks at which the consumer has accounts for card-based transactions, the interface acting as an intermediary that is accessible to the consumer so that the consumer may place a variety of controls on card-based transactions.

Frip: Providing complexity to the consumer. Hope he or she is up to it.

INTELLIGENT ATM CHECK IMAGE DEPOSIT ENGINE; US 8,510,221 B2; 8/13/2013; Class 705/43; 20 claims; assigned to Bank of America.

Directed to a method and system for recognizing check deposits based on customer behavior patterns identified from previously collected transaction data, and more specifically determining the amount of a check deposit received at, for example, an automated teller machine (ATM), the amount of the check being unreadable from a scanned image, by extrapolating from numerous characteristics and circumstances surrounding the deposit, include the timing of the deposit, the monetary value of the deposit, the payor, and various other check attributes.

Frip: BofA creates its own Hal the computer.

August 20, 2013

PATENT COMMENTS

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR COORDINATING POOLED FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS; US 8,515,772 B2; 8/20/2013; Class 705/1; 32 claims; assigned to The Western Union Company.

Providing methods and systems for processing financial transactions that greatly simplify pooling of financial resources among multiple people, some embodiments making use of an architecture that permits access to a host system implementing methods of the invention, the architecture maybe including direct interfaces with geographically distributed transaction devices and maybe including various remote interfaces, including an Internet interface, a DTMF interface, a cable interface, or combinations thereof, the host system maintaining criteria that define when the transaction is to be executed or aborted, and coordinating the collection of partial payments made by different persons, thereby effecting the pooling aspect of the transaction.

Frip: Western Union, gettin’ into the weeds.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSOCIATING FINANCIAL TRANSACTION DATA WITH USER'S PROJECT DATA USING A PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE; US 8,515,836 B1; 8/20/2013; Class 705/28; 25 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Comprising, in one form, an expense reporting system for viewing and manipulating a user's financial transaction data, the system including a user's financial transaction data hosted in a data storage unit, addressable on a network, and accessible by a remote user on a user interface unit having a user input means and a display, and an expense reporting module having a graphical user interface (GUI).

Frip: If you ain’t got a PED (portable electronic device) in your paw, you just ain’t part of the Information Age.

ORDER MATCH INSURANCE; US 8,515,853 B2; 8/20/2013; Class 705/37; 11 claims.

Providing a method of providing match insurance comprising posting a match insurance rate quote, receiving a match insurance request, and granting match insurance in response to the match insurance request in accordance with the posted match insurance rate quote. Frip: The financial system is much too complicated for us humans.

ELECTRONIC SECURITIES MARKETPLACE HAVING INTEGRATION WITH ORDER MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS; US 8,515,857 B2; 8/20/2013; Class 705/37; 23 claims; assigned to CFPH, LLC.

Providing for the automated transmission of orders (that is, without manual trader intervention) from the various order management systems (OMSs) used by investment management firms or other entities having trading systems to an electronic trading marketplace (ETM), and more.

Frip: The bits and bytes are in control.

METHOD AND ARRANGEMENT FOR PRE-MATCH RISK VALIDATION OF ORDERS IN AN AUTOMATED EXCHANGE; US 8,515,858 B2; 8/20/2013; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to OMX Technology AB (Sweden).

Relating to a method and an arrangement for validating received orders in a matching module of an automated exchange and in particular to a method and an arrangement to risk validate an order before it is accepted for matching.

Frip: Designed by the Swedish Bikini Team?

CONSOLE, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING AN INTERFACE TO A FINANCIAL MARKET TRADING SYSTEM OR TO A FINANCIAL MARKET BASED GAMING SYSTEM; US 8,515,859 B2; 8/20/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims.

Being a console, system, and method for providing an interface to a financial market trading system or to a financial market based gaming system, the invention enabling the trader to trade on financial markets using an interface simulating known and popular games from the world of sports, arcade, games of chance, strategic games, and the like.

Frip: See, the financial marketplace is all one big game, and you’re the loser.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING SALE OF A LOAN TO A SECONDARY MARKET PURCHASER; US 8,515,861 B2; 8/20/2013; Class 705/38; 28 claims; assigned to Fannie Mae.

Providing a method for facilitating sale of a loan by a seller to a purchaser where the loan has a set of loan data and the seller and the purchaser have an agreement regarding the sale of loans including terms for determining a price for the loan prior to selling the loan to the purchaser, the price being based on at least the set of loan data and the terms for the agreement, the method also including the application of a set of business rules to the set of loan data prior to selling the loan to the purchaser to identify compliance with terms of the agreement, errors in the loan data, or both.

Frip: And another couple hundred Fannie employees are out of work.

MULTIPLE ACCOUNT ADVANCED PAYMENT CARD AND METHOD OF ROUTING CARD TRANSACTIONS; US 8,515,868 B2; 8/20/2013; Class 705/41; 7 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing a single card having the benefit of accessing multiple accounts and if desirable multiple types of accounts.

Frip: Can I access my neighbor’s accounts also? That would really be cool.

August 27, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYSYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING OPTIMAL PRICING AND RISK CONTROL MONITORING OF AUCTIONED ASSETS INCLUDING THE AUTOMATIC COMPUTATION OF BID PRICES FOR CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS AND THE LIKE; US 8,521,566 B2; 8/27/2013; Class 705/4; 60 claims.

Determining a pricing and risk control strategy for auctioned assets such as credit default swap instruments, using various risk and quality factors, the invention providing an innovative, fully-automated system that facilitates the buying and selling of such debt-based derivatives and other assets, the techniques eliminating prior opaqueness, inefficiencies, and lack of risk monitoring, and providing an end-to-end, highly efficient reverse-auction platform that considers many aspects of risk control and other parameters, and so on.

Frip: Claim 1 has some serious equations, or algorithms to you younger folks.

INSURANCE EXCHANGE; US 8,521,567 B2; 8/27/2013; Class 705/4; 18 claims.

Describing an insurance exchange system that provides insurance users with an integrated view of insurance products and services offered by various insurance organizations in various countries under a single customizable and search-capable interface.

Frip: Headache coming on.METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ALLOCATING FUNDS OVER A PLURALITY OF TIME DEPOSIT INSTRUMENTS IN DEPOSITORY INSTITUTIONS; US 8,521,569 B1; 8/27/2013; Class 705/4; 30 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Relating generally to administering an allocation of funds for the purchase of time deposit instruments at a plurality of depository institutions and possibly other financial instruments. Frip: Trying to outfox the poor ol’ FDIC?

TAX REFUND SYSTEM; US 8,521,625 B2; 8/27/2013; Class 705/31; 22 claims; assigned to H & R Block Tax Services LLC.

In exchange for a taxpayer assigning all or a portion of his or her tax refund, providing the taxpayer a spending vehicle with buying power at participating outlets.

Frip: Just gimme my refund. Don’t want no “spending vehicle” that’ll put me more in debt.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FACILITATING ELECTRONIC SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS; US 8,521,627 B2; 8/27/2013; Class 705/35; 19 claims; assigned to Blockross Holdings, LLC.

Using an electronic trading market to match orders received by a number of order input systems.

Frip: Enables things to be done with a modicum of secrecy.

PROCESSING SECURITIES-RELATED INFORMATION; US 8,521,632 B2; 8/27/2013; Class 705/36R; 8 claims; assigned to Broadridge Content Solutions, Inc.

Providing techniques for improving clarity of disclosure materials provided to investors by enabling securities issuers, intermediaries and other entities to create and disseminate clear and concise summary-level information on individual securities to investors to enable informed investment decisions.

Frip: “Clear” information on securities? Isn’t that an oxymoron? And claim 1 has over 1300 words. How clear can that be?

CREATING AND MAINTAINING A PAYOUT-READY PORTFOLIO WITHIN AN INVESTMENT PLAN TO GENERATE A SUSTAINABLE INCOME STREAM; US 8,521,633 B2; 8/27/2013; Class 705/36R; 30 claims; assigned to Financial Engines, Inc.

Relating to systems and methods for preparing an investment plan (for example, a retirement plan that may have a limited universe of bond funds) for creating a steady lifetime income stream by implementing an in-plan flexible income stream generation mechanism and creating and managing an annuity reserve.

Frip: Is it really life-time, or are you in trouble if you don’t go belly-up before 85?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RECONCILING FINANCIAL RECORDS BY MATCHING OUTSTANDING TRADE ORDERS TO UNMATCHED TRANSACTIONS; US 8,521,634 B1; 8/27/2013; Class 705/36R; 12 claims; assigned to Vestmark, Inc.

Matching investments that are not reported as trades once an order to purchase has been placed with unmatched transactions of the portfolio account system, thus avoiding the creation of breaks of the portfolio account system.

Frip: Gotta eliminate those “breaks.”

METHOD OF NEGOTIATING TRADES ON AN ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEM AND AN ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,521,635 B2; 8/27/2013; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to OMX Technology AB (Sweden).

Enabling an intra-trading-system part-to part negotiation through the steps of receiving a trade negotiation request with respect to a selected order from a user, forwarding the trade negotiation request to a submitter of the selected order, receiving an accept or a reject to the trade negotiation request from the submitter, and initiating an intra-trading-system part-to-part negotiation procedure between the user and the submitter if the negotiation request is accepted by the submitter, the invention also disclosing an electronic trading system.

Frip: How can you “negotiate” when everything is taking place in milli-or-less seconds?

AUTOMATED SPECTRUM EXCHANGE SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,521,636 B2; 8/27/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Spectrum Bridge, Inc.

Relating generally to wireless communications infrastructure and, more particularly, to an automated spectrum exchange system and method for transferring spectrum use rights.

Frip: Gonna get me some spectrum.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONDUCTING A TRANSACTION; US 8,521,639 B2; 8/27/2013; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Relating to methods and apparatus for conducting transactions involving mandatory units, which are hybrid financial products involving the issuance of a stock purchase contract together with a debt instrument, the process involving capped and uncapped remarketings.

Frip: Goldman, is confusing customers and regulators your basic strategy?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CHANGING ORDER PRIORITY LEVELS IN AN ELECTRONIC TRADING ENVIRONMENT; US 8,521,640 B2; 8/27/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International Inc.

Changing a priority level of an order to a higher priority level, changing the priority level of the order initially at the higher priority level to a lower priority level, and charging a fee to the trader gaining the higher priority level, at least a portion of that fee being paid to the trader giving up the higher priority level.

Frip: Patent on the ol’ switcharoo.

SYSTEMS, METHODS. AND COMPUTER PRODUCTS FOR DIRECTING CASH FLOWS ASSOCIATED WITH MORTGAGE-BACKED SECURITIES; US 8,521,644 B1; 8/27/2013; Class 705/38; 20 claims; assigned to Freddie Mac.

Relating to systems and methods for directing cash flows from one or more underlying mortgage-backed securities or individual loans into one or more new mortgage-backed securities without decomposing or collapsing the underlying securities.

Frip: You certainly know something about collapsing underlying securities, eh Freddie Mac?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FACILITATING SWITCHING OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTION ACCOUNTS; US 8,521,645 B2; 8/27/2013; Class 705/39; 26 claims; assigned to Visa U.S.A. Inc.

Facilitating switching of financial institution accounts and any corresponding account linkages, the process enabling a customer to retain any accrued benefits or accrue further benefits via the existing payment association with the new financial institution account, and other stuff.

Frip: Should a patent be granted for “facilitating”?

September 3, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYMANAGING AN INSURANCE PLAN; US 8,527,302 B2; 9/3/2013; Class 705/4; 26 claims; assigned to FMR LLC.

Receiving multiple bids from multiple reinsurance companies for the price of a unit of an insurance product (for example, a fixed annuity paying ten dollars a month starting at the age of sixty five), the unit of the insurance product being associated with a set of one or more risk factors (for example, age, range of ages), selecting a bid, and offering units of the insurance product associated with the selected bid to participants associated with the set of one or more risk factors.

Frip: Ten bucks a month ain’t much of an annuity.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTHORIZING THIRD-PARTY TRANSACTIONS FOR AN ACCOUNT AT A FINANCIAL INSTITUTION ON BEHALF OF THE ACCOUNT HOLDER; US 8,527,381 B2; 9/3/2013; Class 705/35; 33 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing for a method and system whereby a financial institution can collect, process, transmit, and confirm authorizations to third parties for electronic payments and direct deposits on behalf of its account-holder customers.

Frip: More stuff for a customer to keep track of?

QUOTE INACTIVATION SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AN AUTOMATED EXCHANGE FOR TRADING DERIVATIVE SECURITIES; US 8,527,391 B2; 9/3/2013; Class 705/37; 10 claims; assigned to International Securities Exchange, LLC.

Providing an automated system and method for trading option instruments on an automated exchange comprising a participant system for communicating with an automated exchange system, the system and method allowing a market professional such as a market maker to inactivate the quotes in instruments for a related product while the market maker's quoting engine continues to update the quotes, also disclosed is other stuff such as a system and method for reducing load on a exchange network in recalculating a best bid and offer price, and a system and method for maintaining control over professional quotes for the purchase and sale of option instruments for a product in an exchange system. Frip: Whew.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED TRADING OF SECONDARY DEBT MARKET SECURITIES; US 8,527,396 B2; 9/3/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to MarketAxess Holdings, Inc.

Providing a computer-implemented system for trading of debt securities, including new issues and secondary market issues, the system involving multi-dealer inventory, trading, research, and new issue features and accommodating all types of debt security products including, without limitation, high-grade bonds, high-yield bonds, emerging market bonds, agency bonds, municipal bonds, and European fixed-income products, including Eurobonds, Pfandbrief (a German security), European high-yield bonds, and European-dominated emerging markets bonds.

Frip: Think I once had a thing for a fraulein named Pfandbrief.

ONLINE AUTOMATED SOFTWARE APPLICATION FOR MATCHING INVESTORS AND TRADERS TO CREATE RISK CONTROLLED INVESTMENT ACCOUNTS; US 8,527,397 B2; 9/3/2013; Class 705/37; 9 claims; assigned to E Tech Money, Inc.

Providing a method to match specific investors to specific traders or traders’ systems and to create, or facilitate the creation of, risk controlled investment accounts between those specific investors and specific traders or traders’ systems.

Frip: And that is an Exchange!EARLY PAYMENT REWARDS SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,527,405 B1; 9/3/2013; Class 705/39; 12 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Reducing funding burden on a credit issuer by offering an early payment rewards program to qualified card holders, the method maybe including selecting card holders having a history of payment of their entire credit balance each month and of generating account-related fees not exceeding a pre-selected threshold and offering them participation in the early payment rewards program.

Frip: Hot diggity, a rewards program! Too bad most of us don’t pay bills on time.

AUDITING AND RECONCILING CUSTODIAL ACCOUNTS; US 8,527,409 B1; 9/3/2013; Class 705/39; 23 claims; assigned to Promontory Interfinancial Network, LLC.

Providing a custodial agent the capability to audit activity and balances in one or more custodial accounts at one or more depository institutions at which deposits are held by the custodial agent on behalf of one or more individuals, and to reconcile such accounts.

Frip: Another foray to counter the FDIC’s deposit insurance limits?

END-TO END MONITORING OF A CHECK IMAGE SEND PROCESS; US 8,527,412 B1; 9/3/2013; Class 705/40; 29 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Monitoring the health of an image send process as it progresses from negotiable instruments first being captured through when the bank receives an acknowledgement that the image reached the Paying Bank and was accepted by the Paying Bank.

Frip: Can you get checks with a little pornography on them?

OFFSETTING FUTURE ACCOUNT DISCREPANCY ASSESSMENTS; US 8,527,414 B2; 9/3/2013; Class 705/42; 34 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to methods and apparatuses for prepaying, covering, avoiding, negating, or otherwise offsetting future account discrepancy assessments.

Frip: How about adding “threatening” to the methods?

END TO END (E2E) PROCESSING; US 8,527,419 B1; 9/3/2013; Class 705/45; 16 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing a method and apparatus for monitoring through completion the automated processes performed by a bank in validating Image Cash Letters for purposes of check clearing under the provisions of the Check21 Act.

Frip: End to End is acronymed E2E. Cute.

September 10, 2013

PATENT SUMMARY

IN-BOUND TELEMARKETING SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING CUSTOMER OFFERS; US 8,533,030 B1; 9/10/2013; Class 705/14; 30 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to a system and method for handling in-bound telemarketing calls when a consumer responds to a targeted offer ("solicited") or a generalized marketing overture ("unsolicited").

Frip: Step 1—Do not call the customer “Doofus.”

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING LIQUIDITY OPTIONS AND PERMANENT LEGACY BENEFITS FOR ANNUITIES; US 8,533,080 B2; 9/10/2013; Class 705/35; 12 claims.

Relating to methods and systems that provide annuities with at least one liquidity option allowing the holder of the liquidity option to exercise the option and convert therewith a portion of a value of the annuity into a liquid asset, such as cash or a cash value, based on the value of future income payments, which can include payments that are guaranteed to be paid for the duration of one or more lifetime.

Frip: How many lifetimes do you have?

METHOD FOR AGGREGATING AND VALUING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN AN EXCHANGE; US 8,533,085 B2; 9/10/2013; Class 705/35; 4 claims; assigned to MP&S Intellectual Property Associates, LLC.

Relating to methods for creating a type of financial exchange that trades in intellectual property rights from a pool of intellectual property rights and in equity interest in the exchange wherein the value of each intellectual property right is based on an aggregated value of the pooled intellectual property and the value of an equity interest has a value based at least in part on the aggregated value. Frip: Didja ever wonder if the term “intellectual property” is a misnomer?

VARIABLE RATE PAYMENT CARD; US 8,533,086 B1; 9/10/2013; Class 705/35; 13 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating generally to credit and payment cards, and, in particular, to payment arrangements related to credit and payment cards in a business to business environment.

Frip: B2B stuff. (See, Frip be learning the jargon).

METHODS, SYSTEMS AND SECURITIES FOR ASSURING A COMPANY AN OPPORTUNITY TO SELL STOCK AFTER A SPECIFIED TIME; US 8,533,088 B1; 9/10/2013; Class 705/36R; 19 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

In one embodiment, providing for a sale, by a company to another entity, of a security that may include a post-paid forward contract obligating the other entity to purchase a fixed number of shares stock of the company, and debt.

Frip: Gettin’ into a Wall Street thicket of obtuseness.

SECURITY FUTURES CONTRACT WITH SELECTABLE EXPIRATION AND METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR THE CREATION, LISTING, PURCHASE AND SALE, AND TRADING OF THE SAME; US 8,533,090 B2; 9/10/2013; Class 705/36R; 40 claims; assigned to Interactive Brokers LLC.

Providing a novel financial instrument and system and method for creating, listing, purchase and sale, and trading said financial instrument wherein the instrument comprises a security futures contract with a selectable expiration date, the invention also providing for (1) a request for quotes process, which in one embodiment permits the creation and listing of a security futures contract with a selectable expiration date, and (2) a method and system for permitting the automated entry of an exchange-for-physicals (EFP) trade including a security futures contract with a selectable expiration date.

Frip: Say what?GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS FOR SHORT ASSET LIFE EQUIPMENT; US 8,533,093 B1; 9/10/2013; Class 705/36R; 21 claims; assigned to Dale Scott & Co., Inc.

Providing a new type of general obligation (GO) bond, called Ed-Tech bonds, structured to provide on-going funding for a school or community college district's technology needs, match the term of the underlying bonds to the useful short-term life of technology assets to be purchased with bond proceeds, and address federal restrictions regarding use of bond proceeds.

Frip: And if a school district defaults, the students can become indentured servants of the investors.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ELECTRONICALLY TRADING DERIVATIVES AND OTHER FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS; US 8,533,099 B2; 9/10/2013; Class 705/37; 3 claims; assigned to Tradeweb Markets LLC.

Relating to systems and methods for trading financial instruments and, in particular, to systems and methods for communication between customers and dealers involving customer requests for a market in a selected financial instrument.

Frip: No more telephone, all computer.

AUTOMATED BATCH AUCTIONS IN CONJUNCTION WITH CONTINUOUS FINANCIAL MARKETS; US 8,533,100 B2; 9/10/2013; Class 705/37; 14 claims; assigned to ITG Software Solutions, Inc.

Providing a method and system for gathering orders from qualified market participants, determining (or "discovering") a price and share quantity based on the aggregate supply and demand represented by all orders submitted, executing the resulting quantity, and "fairly" allocating the executed shares back to the submitters of the orders, the method and system being advantageously used to periodically initiate ("open") and terminate ("close") trading in financial instruments as well as to operate concurrent with "continuous" trading systems, such as the "continuous auction" operated by the NYSE and by electronic trading on Nasdaq and in electronic communications networks (ECNs).

Frip: If a computer hiccups, does everything crash?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MONEY MANAGEMENT USING A PLURALITY OF PROFIT LEVELS IN AN ELECTRONIC TRADING ENVIRONMENT; US 8,533,102 B2; 9/10/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing a system that preferably operates as a money management tool by dynamically modifying an order parameter such as an order quantity to prevent or reduce losses or increase trader's profits, the system preferably operating as a trader's conscience or an automatic trading tool that prevents a trader from losing money by restricting certain orders from being sent to the exchange and/or by modifying the orders before they are sent to the exchange.

Frip: A “trader’s conscience”?! Everyone knows that traders have no conscience.

MULTI-BROKER ORDER ROUTING BASED ON NET POSITION; US 8,533,104 B2; 9/10/2013; Class 705/37; 14 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing tools for multi-broker order routing based on net position at a broker, the net position of a user at a broker to receive a portion of a trade order is considered when allocating the quantity for the trade order to multiple brokers.

Frip: Huh?ORDER CENTRIC TRACKING SYSTEM AND PROTOCOL FOR COMMUNICATIONS WITH HANDHELD TRADING UNITS; US 8,533,105 B1; 9/10/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Directed to a method and system for allocating, tracking, and reporting orders and trades executed in the context of an exchange setting, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which method and system supports the use of wireless handheld trading devices used by floor brokers on the exchange floor, the invention being further directed to a specialized communications language and protocol for communications between the handheld devices and the trading system.

Frip: Yeah, the Information Age is gonna bring the financial system crashing down. You heard it here.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING PROMOTIONAL PRICING; US 8,533,111 B1; 9/10/2013; Class 705/39; 36 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing promotional pricing to credit accounts, wherein the pricing offers may be directed to transactions associated with particular products, merchants, or both.

Frip: And you need a patent for this?

PAYMENT SERVICES FOR MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS; US 8,533,115 B2; 9/10/2013; Class 705/41; 13 claims; assigned to Visa International Service Association.

Providing a mechanism for bidding for, implementing, and delivering uniform services to multi-national clients with a single point of contact and seamless global processes, an entity known as the Central Coordinating Body (CCB) enabling banks to service the needs of multi-national commercial clients by providing standards, relationships, management (or coordination) protocols, problem resolution, processing, data sourcing, and reporting capabilities, the invention utilizing the existing infrastructure of local banks in foreign countries along with the services of CCB to provide a local bank with the capability to appear like a global bank to a prospective client.

Frip: You may be the Bank of Podunk but your customers will think you’re JP itself.

INTERNET PAYMENT, AUTHENTICATION AND LOADING SYSTEM USING VIRTUAL SMART CARD; US 8,533,116 B2; 9/10/2013; Class 705/41; 4 claims; assigned to Visa International Service Association.

Relating generally to a payment and loading system using a computer network, and more specifically to a payment and loading system for a virtual smart card using an open network such as the Internet.

Frip: Is a virtual smart card the same as a real smart card, and what is a smart card anyway?

September 17, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTEGRATING TRADING OPERATIONS INCLUDING THE GENERATION, PROCESSING AND TRACKING OF AND TRADE DOCUMENTS; US 8,538,844 B1; 9/17/2013; Class 705/35; 9 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing buyers, sellers, trading partners, their global affiliates, agents and supply chain service providers (for example, shippers) with an automated facility in which all of the information associated with a trade is electronically exchanged and accessed via the Internet, third party network (Value Added Network, VAN), leased line, or dial up connection.

Frip: Patent on a whole bunch of processes.

METHOD FOR INVESTING WORKING CAPITAL; US 8,538,847 B2; 9/17/2013; Class 705/36R; 16 claims.

Pertaining to investing of corporate working capital, and a method of utilizing the Internet for such investing, investors being able to offer contractual agreements to invest specified amounts for specific terms for the best rate of return received within a predetermined time period, the amounts and terms being made available to securities dealers, who have the opportunity to propose one or more investment instruments.

Frip: Great. Investing over the Internets.

REVENUE ALLOCATION FOR BUNDLED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS; US 8,538,848 B1; 9/17/2013; Class 705/36R; 28 claims; assigned to IVP Holdings I, LLC.

Relating to methods and systems for sharing revenue generated by transactions that involve intellectual property assets and, in particular, to methods and systems for allocating royalties, or other types of revenue, based upon a determination of the various characteristics of an intellectual property asset. Frip: Patent on an IP bundle.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SETTLING TRADES; US 8,538,853 B2; 9/17/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Providing a method of settling trades, the method including the steps of obtaining an authenticated delivery instrument that is authenticated by a first exchange and may be used to settle a trade undertaken on the first exchange, issuing an electronic proxy for the delivery instrument, the electronic proxy being exchangeable for the authenticated delivery instrument and used to settle a trade undertaken on a second exchange.

Frip: Guess this makes sense to somebody.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FILTERING AND/OR SORTING RESPONSES TO ELECTRONIC REQUESTS FOR QUOTE; ; US 8,538,854 B1; 9/17/2013; Class 705/37; 32 claims; assigned to Versata Computer Industry Solutions, Inc.

Relating to filtering and sorting responses to electronic requests for quotes for a product or products offered for sale, the process involving the comparison of first data of at least one electronic quote to corresponding first data of an electronic request for quote and the generation of a signal in response to the comparison, in one embodiment the signal identifying whether the first data of the electronic quote equals corresponding first data of the electronic request for quote.

Frip: Guess you had to be there.FRACTIONAL PAY-UP TICK FOR USE IN RELATION TO TRADING STRATEGIES; US 8,538,855 B2; 9/17/2013; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing a system and associated methods for use of fractional pay-up ticks in relation to offset orders being sent for a trading strategy that involves trading a first tradeable object and at least a second tradeable object.

Frip: Ticks can give you Lyme disease.

ONLINE TRADING SYSTEM HAVING REAL-TIME ACCOUNT OPENING; US 8,538,857 B2; 9/17/2013; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to E*Trade Financial Corporation.

Relating to an online trading system that allows users to open accounts in "real time," that is, the account is opened while the user waits, and the user is able to perform trading operations immediately after the account is opened.

Frip: In case you get a hot tip and gotta trade right now, this very minute, or you’ll just die.

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR COMMODITY TRADING WITH AUTOMATIC ODD LOT HEDGING; US 8,538,858 B2; 9/17/2013; Class 705/37; 23 claims; assigned to Farms Technology, LLC.

Automatically accepting odd lot offers on behalf of buyers and aggregating them with other odd lot offers of the same commodity symbol until there are enough bushels to reach a predetermined threshold, or "tipping point," which causes the system to automatically calculate the optimum number of full lot futures contracts to sell at the market price in order to offset risk associated with accepting the odd lot offers, and to automatically secure the optimum number of full lot futures contracts.

Frip: “Ee-I, Ee-I, O.”

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SWAPPING OF TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE ITEMS; US 8,538,859 B2; 9/17/2013; Class 705/37; 14 claims; assigned to National Book Swap, LLC.

Providing a swapping service that may be used to swap items of any type between users that have registered with the swapping service.

Frip: Can you swap lives with members of the top one percent?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE CREATION AND REBALANCING OF BENEFICIAL INTERESTS IN INDEX TRACKING AND OTHER INVESTMENT VEHICLES OVER MULTIPLE MARKET PERIODS USING FIXED OR REGULARLY RESETTING PRICES TO CALIBRATE OUTSTANDING INTEREST COUNTS WITH LIQUIDATION ENTITLEMENTS; US 8,538,860 B1; 9/17/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to Accushares Holdings LLC.

Providing a method and system that create, modify, and manipulate the units of a collective investment vehicle, and that accurately track a linked index or specific investment strategy through the execution of steps that result in units reflecting an equivalent value based on a reset to the initial fixed price, and further such that the par value is adjusted in a counterbalancing direction.

Frip: Huh?USE OF ADAPTIVE AND/OR CUSTOMIZED COMPRESSION TO ENHANCE THE EFFICIENCY OF DIGITAL FINANCIAL DATA EXCHANGES; US 8,538,861 B2; 9/17/2013; Class 705/37; 15 claims; assigned to Auerbach Group LLC.

Relating to a method for enhancing the efficiency of digitally communicated data exchanges and to a computer system that implements such a method, the invention particularly concerning the use of adaptive custom compression techniques, binary integers ("bits"), massively parallel processing, database optimization techniques, and calculation optimization techniques to achieve such enhanced efficiency, the invention being applicable to any digitally communicated data exchange, but particularly applicable to exchanges of financial information such as financial market buy/sell orders, market making, and the like.

Frip: Compressed them bits! Yeah!

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING A TRANSACTION USING A REVOLVING USE ACCOUNT ASSOCIATED WITH A PRIMARY ACCOUNT; US 8,538,863 B1; 9/17/2013; Class 705/38; 17 claims; assigned to American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

Relating to a system for facilitating transactions utilizing a revolving use account that is associated with a primary account, and more particularly, allowing an accountholder to create one or more revolving use accounts that can be stored on one or more transaction devices associated with the primary account.

Frip: Hey, keeping track of one account is tough enough.

CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT SHADOWING; US 8,538,872 B1; 9/17/2013; Class 705/39; 17 claims; assigned to USAA.

Providing account shadowing such that when a charge is made on a first credit card (for example, a high interest rate credit card) of a user, a transfer of funds is made from a second credit card (for example, a low interest rate credit card) of the user to pay the charge made to the first credit card, thus allowing the user to receive the reward incentives of a high interest rate credit card while using a low interest rate credit card to satisfy balances due.

Frip: Should you really have two or more credit cards? Sounds like too much temptation.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING BORROWING SCHEMES; US 8,538,876 B2; 9/17/2013; Class 705/40; 11 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Establishing an interest-free revolving amount or account using a computer processor, establishing a periodic payment for maintaining the interest-free revolving amount or account, and automatically revising the interest-free revolving amount or account or the periodic payment based upon at least one user performance metric over a predetermined period of time, wherein the interest-free revolving amount or account or the periodic payment for maintaining the interest-free revolving amount is determined by the user via the network.

Frip: Beware of banks bearing schemes.

SYSTEM, PROGRAM PRODUCT, AND COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD FOR LOADING A LOAN ON AN EXISTING PRE-PAID CARD; US 8,538,879 B2; 9/17/2013; Class 705/41; 5 claims; assigned to Metabank.

A bank receiving authorization from a lender to credit loan proceeds from the lender to an approved borrower on an existing pre-paid card associated with a pre-paid card processor, then the bank crediting the loan proceeds to the pre-paid card processor for the existing pre-paid card so that the loan proceeds are released to the approved borrower and are immediately available.

Frip: Well, why not.METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DEBT RECOVERY; US 8,538,880 B1; 9/17/2013; Class 705/41; 24 claims; assigned to Capital One Financial Corporation.

Evaluating a credit account for a consumer to determine debt recovery risk for the account and providing an inactive stored-value card to the consumer, the stored-value card having an initial balance, generating a debt recovery plan to the account, the debt recovery plan comprising at least one debt recovery incentive, and applying the debt recovery incentive to the account and activating the stored-value card upon receiving at least one payment from the consumer, wherein the account will reflect the debt recovery incentive in the stored-value card associated with the account.

Frip: Well, I guess.METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DIGITAL DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT ON A MOBILE DEVICE; US 8,538,883 B2; 9/17/2013; Class 705/44; 13 claims; assigned to Barclays Bank PLC (UK).

Relating to a mobile payment account system, and more particularly, to an improved process of provisioning of a mobile payment account on a mobile device and management of associated digital documents.

Frip: My polka-dot smart phone’s got all my financial stuff, and I’ve just lost the damn thing.

September 24, 2013

PATENT SUMMARY

METHOD AND SYSTEM PROVIDING ADVICE AND SERVICES TO CONSUMERS; US 8,543,410 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/1.1; 29 claims; assigned to SVX Group Pty Limited (Australia).

Relating to a system and method for consumers to effectively share personal data and in doing so obtain advice based upon the personal data that has been made available to advisers, and other stuff.

Frip: Aussies working for the NSA?

PROVIDING LIFE INSURANCE; US 8,543,425 B1; 9/24/2013; Class 705/4; 20 claims; assigned to USAA.

Disclosing techniques to provide an accurate quote to a life insurance customer over a website and then allowing the customer to complete an application on the website and having that application submitted, while satisfying appropriate state regulations, without the customer having to do anything more.

Frip: No proof needed that you’re not gonna croak tomorrow?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CASH BASED ACCOUNTING IN A GENERAL LEDGER; US 8,543,476 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/33; 9 claims; assigned to SAP AG (Germany).

Encompassing methods, apparatus, and computer program products for cash based accounting, embodiments of the invention facilitating, for example, a retrospective projection of information along a process chain. Frip: “Retrospective projection of information along a process chain.” Ponder that for awhile.

VALUE TRACKING AND REPORTING OF AUTOMATED CLEARING HOUSE TRANSACTIONS; US 8,543,477 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/35; 56 claims; assigned to Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Relating to processing automated clearing house (ACH) financial transactions, and particularly to tracking the accumulated value of ACH payments processed during a specified time period to prevent processing new payments that would result in exceeding a pre-established payment cap.

Frip: Gettin’ into the monetary system’s weeds.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IDENTIFICATION OF QUASI-FUNGIBLE GOODS AND SERVICES, AND FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS BASED THEREON; US 8,543,478 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/36R; 64 claims.

Directed to a system and method for the creation of financial products and inventory optimization, the financial products including repurchase agreements and reverse repurchase agreements, warehouse receipts, futures, forwards, options, structured notes, indices, securities, options, and swaps, particularly mesoeconomic and macroeconomic swaps.

Frip: Mesoeconomics. That’s a major you college kids might consider.

SYSTEM FOR OPERATING INVESTMENT MONEY; US 8,543,479 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/36R; 12 claims; assigned to Samsung Securities Co., Ltd. (Republic of Korea).

Relating to an investment money (IM) operating system allowing a client (a person or a company) to be regularly paid a bonus money not less than a predetermined amount at every turn of investment while guaranteeing the investment principal, thus greatly improving the business competitiveness of the IM manager (for example, a securities company, a bank, an insurance company, and so on) as well as the client's investment satisfaction.

Frip: Was something lost in translation?

METHOD FOR AGGREGATING AND VALUING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN AN EXCHANGE; US 8,543,481 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/36R; 8 claims; assigned to MP&S Intellectual Property Associates, LLC.

Relating to methods for creating a type of financial exchange that trades in intellectual property rights from a pool of intellectual property rights and in equity interest in the exchange wherein the value of each intellectual property right is based on an aggregated value of the pooled intellectual property and the value of an equity interest has a value based at least in part on the aggregated value.

Frip: What if the “intellectual” property isn’t really “intellectual,” in other words, just dumb?

UNIVERSAL INTERFACE TO A FINANCIAL TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,543,484 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Goldman Sachs & Co.

Relating to a network messaging protocol, method, and system that provide access to pricing and trading features of a financial services provider via a network.

Frip: Patent on a protocol?SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR WAGERING-BASED TRANSFERABLE FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS; US 8,543,487 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/37; 34 claims; assigned to Cantor Index, LLC.

Relating generally to the fields of gambling and financial instruments, and more particularly, to providing systems and methods for transforming propositions or positions in games of chance or skill (or mixed games of chance and skill) into tradable financial instruments that can be tracked over time and valued by a plurality of players or investors, the invention thus providing a system and method for creating wagering-based transferable financial instruments.

Frip: Gambling and finance, same-same.

HIGH PERFORMANCE TRADING DATA INTERFACE AND TRADING DATA DISTRIBUTION PROTOCOL; US 8,543,488 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/37; 6 claims; assigned to Lime Brokerage LLC.

Providing a network that enables monitors, trading platforms, and libraries to share information about customers’ trading activities and locally recalculate customer trading limits resulting from those trading activities, the network providing a low-latency interface between a customer server, such as a server that employs algorithmic trading methods to generate buy and sell orders for securities, and a brokerage server that validates such securities trading orders.

Frip: Key term (because no one has a clear idea of what it means): “low-latency.”

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPUTING AND DISPLAYING EFFECTIVE BID AND ASK INFORMATION; US 8,543,489 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing a system and method that can look beyond quantity levels at inside market prices and into additional market depth levels to compute and convey effective bid and ask prices, an effective bid price being an average price at which a certain quantity could be sold based on current market conditions, and an effective ask price being an average price at which a certain quantity could be bought based on current market conditions.

Frip: Patent on picking apart market data.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PHYSICALS COMMODITY TRADING; US 8,543,490 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/37; 21 claims.

Providing a method and system for an electronic commodities trading marketplace along with ancillary tools, the result being a 24-hour electronic trading center for world market commodity importers, exporters, and the intermediaries and processors between them.

Frip: Heck with them futures and options, let’s trade the real stuff!

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING TRADING ORDERS WITH DECAYING RESERVES; US 8,543,491 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Storing a trading order for a particular quantity of a trading product, wherein a first portion of the particular quantity is a displayed quantity and a second portion of the particular quantity is a reserved quantity, disclosing the displayed quantity to one or more market centers, identifying a decay rate associated with the trading order, and causing the reserved quantity to decay based at least in part on the identified decay rate.

Frip: Does the term “decaying reserves” leave you a little squeamish?

SHARED APPRECIATION LOAN MODIFICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,543,494 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/38; 36 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

In general, modifying the terms of a homeowner's loan in exchange for a right to a share of the future value of the home.

Frip: Sounds OK, but read the 333 word first claim and decide if your typical John Q. Homeowner has a chance of understanding what the slick banker sitting across from him (or her) is talking about.

USER EXPERIENCE ON MOBILE PHONE; US 8,543,496 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/39; 12 claims; assigned to American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

Providing a method of operating a mobile phone as a financial transaction instrument such as a credit card, the invention involving software options for the use of the mobile phone (or other mobile device such as a personal digital assistant) enabled as a payment device.

Frip: Another step forward for mankind.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATED INVOICE ENTRY; US 8,543,503 B1; 9/24/2013; Class 705/40; 20 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Directed to methods and systems for the transfer of bulk paper invoices into electronic invoices for electronic submission from a seller to a buyer, the methods and systems using matching logic to transfer details of the paper invoices into electronic invoices, thereby streamlining the process of bulk invoicing.

Frip: JP, patenting their paperwork processes.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATED INVOICE ENTRY; US 8,543,504 B1; 9/24/2013; Class 705/40; 20 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Directed to methods and systems for the transfer of bulk paper invoices into electronic invoices for electronic submission from a seller to a buyer, the methods and systems using matching logic to transfer details of the paper invoices into electronic invoices, thereby streamlining the process of bulk invoicing.

Frip: Same-same as the preceding, only a little different.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DELIVERING FINANCIAL SERVICES; US 8,543,506 B2; 9/24/2013; Class 705/42; 38 claims; assigned to Citibank Development Center, Inc.

In a preferred embodiment, providing a system and method for delivering financial services to a remote device through which a customer or employee of a financial institution can select mini-app dialog components to perform functions, a mini-app dialog component collecting information needed to perform the requested function and instantiating a transaction executor component to carry out the function, the remote device being any type of device, such as a personal computer, screen phone, ATM, personal data assistant, or an internal staff terminal, the remote device accessing the system in a variety of ways, such as through an external service provider, through the Internet, or through dial-up access.

Frip: Sounds like pre-empting the market.

October 1, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYACCOUNT OPENING SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT; US 8,548,886 B1; 10/1/2013; Class 705/35; 24 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing a system for opening and funding an account for a customer, the system including an automatic rate determination feature that uses customer information, account information, and other criteria to determine an interest rate for the account, the rate determination system also mediating rate negotiation between a personal banker and the customer by limiting the increase in rate awarded by the personal banker.

Frip: Look, I’d love to give you a higher rate, but Jamie’s computer says no.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATED REPURCHASE AGREEMENT MATCHING; US 8,548,893 B2; 10/1/2013; Class 705/37; 28 claims; assigned to The Bank of New York.

relating to automated handling of financial transactions known as Tri-Party Repurchase Agreements, which are also commonly known as tri-party "repo" agreements.

Frip: I’ll have a mocha latte and a tri-party repo, please. To go.

REAL TIME TRADING; US 8,548,896 B2; 10/1/2013; Class 705/37; 8 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Relating to a method of facilitating the operation of markets for financial instruments such as swaps, and in particular relating to a system that uses internet browser-type software to present different interfaces to trading parties who have different rights of access to the system, and also to present different views of the activities of other parties. Frip: So you rearrange your computer stuff and get a patent?

SYSTEM FOR MATCHING ORDERS FOR FUTURES CONTRACTS WHICH FACILITATE ELECTRONIC TRADING OF OVER THE COUNTER FUTURES CONTRACTS; US 8,548,897 B2; 10/1/2013; Class 705/37; 28 claims; assigned to ICAP Services North America LLC.

Relating to a method and a system for electronic trading of various asset classes including futures contracts and options on futures contracts, the method and system being configured to be connected to one or more electronic exchanges and integrated into the existing front office software of a broker or dealer to enable both exchange trades and over the counter (OTC) trades while providing the best fill for traders.

Frip: Do we really want to facilitate electronic trading? Hasn’t it done enough damage? Sorry, just Luddite musing.

ELECTRONIC SECURITIES MARKETPLACE HAVING INTEGRATION WITH ORDER MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS; US 8,548,898 B2; 10/1/2013; Class 705/37; 29 claims; assigned to Liquidnet Holdings, Inc.

Providing for the automated transmission of orders from the various order management systems (OMSs) used by investment management firms or other entities having trading systems to an electronic trading marketplace (ETM), a firm with a trading system stores information about orders in an OMS to manage its order flow, to monitor the initiation, placement, and execution of orders, and for related purposes.

Frip: Is this like an improvement on a toothbrush, the toothbrush being instead a trading system?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OPTIMIZING ORDER PLACEMENT IN AN ORDER QUEUE IN AN ELECTRONIC TRADING ENVIRONMENT; US 8,548,899 B2; 10/1/2013; Class 705/37; 14 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Submitting one or more global queue holder orders in a tradeable object to hold one or more positions in an order queue, the global queue holder orders being configured to be placed around a reference price level, at multiple price levels, with constant or varying quantities, and at varying times during the trading day.

Frip: Whatever.FPGA MEMORY PAGING; US 8,548,900 B1; 10/1/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to NYSE Group, Inc.

Providing a market data platform that includes a hardware offload solution allowing received financial information to bypass the software portion of the platform and be written directly into memory, the offload solution including a field programmable gate array (FPGA) that takes over responsibility for some tasks previously performed in software, these tasks including the performance of line arbitrage on financial information feed pairs to ensure that an accurate copy of the financial information feed is obtained and stored in memory as quickly as possible, the tasks also including the performance of memory paging in order to allow financial orders to be stored and accessed in an efficient manner.

Frip: Yeah, and so’s your mother!

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATIC SAVINGS UPON EVENT DETECTION; US 8,548,906 B1; 10/1/2013; Class 705/39; 24 claims; assigned to Intuit Inc.

Automatically performing an electronic transfer of funds from one financial account to another financial account in response to detection of an event such as a user interaction with a user interface to a computer software program.

Frip: My checking account keeps disappearing and I don’t know why.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR BUILDING AN INTERNET PORTAL; US 8,548,909 B1; 10/1/2013; Class 705/42; 34 claims; assigned to Citicorp Development Center, Inc.

Providing a method and system for building an Internet portal, such as an Internet financial portal, that allows business units of a financial institution to populate a database with content and to populate a web server with a set of images, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) files, and other assets such as Portable Document File (PDF) files, and more.

Frip: Software per se?DEVICES AND METHODS FOR DISASTER-RELIEF SUPPORT; US 8,548,911 B2; 10/1/2013; Class 705/42; 21 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to granting access to accounts, to other financial institution services and to wider information-exchange services under circumstances in which such access may not typically be available, such as in the wake of a regional disaster, and more specifically, relating to issuing financial instruments capable of accessing an account, such issuing being to a client requesting access to the accounts but not in possession of physical documentation of being a holder of the account.

Frip: Helping the customer. Bravo! But does this really need patent protection?

TRANSACTION PRE-PROCESSING WITH MOBILE DEVICE FOR A CURRENCY DISPENSING DEVICE; US 8,548,912 B2; 10/1/2013; Class 705/43; 12 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to the pre-processing of transaction information for a transaction that is to be conducted at a transaction processing system, a user submitting transaction information and initiating the transaction prior to reaching or physically interacting with the transaction processing system, thus allowing a user's wait time (for example, while waiting in line for use of the transaction processing system) to be used more effectively.

Frip: Yeah, standing in line at an ATM is one of society’s major problems.

METHODS AND SYSTEMS OF EMPLOYMENT CANDIDATE DATA MANAGEMENT; US 8,548,929 B1; 10/1/2013; Class 705/321; 25 claims; assigned to Citicorp Credit Services, Inc.

Relating generally to the field of employment candidate data management, and more particularly to methods and systems for employment candidate recruitment, pre-screening, scheduling, testing, tracking, staffing, and resume data management.

Frip: Firing employees doesn’t require a patent—“Get your sorry a** outta here!”

INSTITUTIONAL PROVIDED DATA SHARE PLATFORM; US 8,548,930 B2; 10/1/2013; Class 705/325; 12 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Directed to a system, method, or computer program product for an institution-provided data share platform that allows customers and commercial partners to access data the institution may have, provides customers the means to create customized applications utilizing the data in combination with data provided by the customer, and other stuff.

Frip: BofA, maybe gettin’ into the app business?

October 8, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYMETHOD AND SYSTEM OF TRADING A STANDARDIZED CONTRACT; US 8,554,658 B2; 10/8/2013; Class 705/36; 16 claims; assigned to Hodgson Global Enterprises Limited (United Kingdom).

Relating to a system, method, and corresponding computer program product for trading and settling a contract that has a price based on the expectation of the rise or fall of some underlying between two specified times, both such times being after the time that the contract is first available for trading, the underlying being an asset (financial, physical, or other), basket, index, contract, other financial instrument, or other economically significant variable(s) (including weather and geological data).

Frip: Wow! And no prior art!

SYSTEM FOR TRADING COMMODITIES AND THE LIKE; US 8,554,659 B2; 10/8/2013; Class 705/37; 21 claims; assigned to Tradecapture OTC Corp.

A system for trading commodities and the like comprising a computer, a communications link between the computer and the Internet, a database, accessible by the computer, containing a plurality of user files wherein each of the user files contains a plurality of transaction parameters corresponding to one or more indications associated with the user file.

Frip: Patent on a new exchange?

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR RETRIEVING DATA STORED IN A DATABASE; US 8,554,661 B2; 10/8/2013; Class 705/37; 69 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Providing a computer-implemented, transaction-making, municipal bond trading system having a capability to conduct a private electronic auction of bid wanteds between a central brokers' broker and multiple prospective remote bidders and to maintain a reference database of accurate individual bond lot descriptions and identifications, including CUSIP (trademark) numbers. Frip: “Wanteds.” Cool how these financial engineers make up words.

DELTA NEUTRAL FUTURES ALLOCATION; US 8,554,662 B2; 10/8/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Allocating a fractional quantity of an underlying financial product to a trader that submits a plurality of orders, each being for a quantity of a derivative financial product derived from the underlying financial product and each being counter to a previously received order for a quantity of the derivative financial product, the previously received order being further characterized by a specified ratio of the quantity of the derivative financial product thereof to a quantity of the underlying financial product.

Frip: The PTO must be using the government shutdown to unload patent applications too complex for comprehension.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PERFORMING A CASH TRANSACTION WITH A SELF-SERVICE FINANCIAL TRANSACTION TERMINAL; US 8,554,672 B1; 10/8/2013; Class 705/39; 24 claims; assigned to Citicorp Development Center, Inc.

Providing a method and system for performing a cash transaction with an ATM that enables a transaction cardholder to authorize another person to withdraw a specified amount of cash from the cardholder's bank account at any ATM of the cardholder's bank.

Frip: Just give the ATM my name and you’re in fat city.

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DISCOUNTS MANAGEMENT; US 8,554,673 B2; 10/8/2013; Class 705/40; 8 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Directed to a computer implemented business method in an electronic system in which payment information is exchanged between a buyer and a seller, approval being received from the buyer of an electronic invoice received by the buyer, a discount request being received from the buyer to offer the seller early payment in exchange for a discount of the amount owed, the discount being based on an annual hurdle rate provided to the system by the buyer, the offer being presented to the seller on the seller's user interface, and a clickable button being provided for the seller to indicate selection of such offer.

Frip: The essence of the patent is a clickable button?

PURCHASING ALERT METHODS AND APPARATUS; US 8,554,676 B2; 10/8/2013; Class 705/40; 29 claims; assigned to The Toronto-Dominion Bank (Canada).

Relating to a method that involves receiving transaction information for N financial transactions, each financial transaction having already been executed using an associated financial instrument, the method also involving processing the transaction information using at least one of a plurality of rule sets, selectively generating M alert communications in response to the processing, and passing the alert communications to an entity over a network.

Frip: RED ALERT! RED ALERT! Oh wait, it’s only a patent.

October 15, 2013

PATENT SUMMARY

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INCREASING CAPACITY IN AN INSURANCE SYSTEM; US 8,560,354 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/4; 29 claims; assigned to Hartford Fire Insurance Company.

Relating, in various aspects, to systems, methods, and computer readable media suited for implementing a commonly administered, quota share-based multi-insurer primary insurance system.

Frip: Spreading your insurance premiums around.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FINANCIAL INVESTMENT ADVICE AVAILABLE TO HOST OF USERS OVER A PUBLIC NETWORK; US 8,560,412 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/35; 8 claims; assigned to TrueGenius, Inc.

Directed to an online investment arrangement that includes a series of advisor webpages, each webpage promoting a particular investment strategy that will be followed by a given advisor and providing a link to a corresponding webpage of an investment entity, the entity webpage including a certified definition of the selected investment strategy and allowing an investor to invest according to the stated strategy while maintaining the advisor in a guiding capacity.

Frip: Investment advice over the Internets! Now which middlemen are getting a cut of the fees?

SYNTHETIC ULTRALONG INFLATION-PROTECTED SEPARATE TRADING OF REGISTERED INTEREST AND PRINCIPAL OF SECURITIES SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT; US 8,560,414 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/35; 17 claims; assigned to Research Affiliates, LLC.

Generating a correlated investment through the steps of discounting to present value one or more future liabilities at a discount rate of a bond that matures at the same time as the future liabilities, generating a correlated investment using an original investment amount, leveraged funds, or both, monitoring market information about a bond market, inflation, or both, and recalibrating the correlated investment according to the market information, inflation, or both. Frip: Sign me up!

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONVERTING INVESTMENT CAPITAL INTO PUBLICLY TRADED AND PRIVATE MASTER LIMITED PARTNERSHIPS; US 8,560,416 B1; 10/15/2013; Class 705/35; 2 claims; assigned to American Infrastructure Funds, LLC.

Receiving investment capital from an investor, investing the investment capital in publicly traded master limited partnerships to generate a revenue stream, and also in a private company that is subsequently converted to a master limited partnership to generate an equity gain, and distributing a portion of the revenue stream and a portion of the equity gain to the investor.

Frip: Wow! Another sign me up!SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY ASSETS; US 8,560,419 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/36R; 11 claims; assigned to Avaya, Inc.

Providing an automated method for developing new products within a development entity, the method including the receipt of respective catalogs of technology assets, each catalog corresponding to a discrete pool of technology assets having subject matter in common, also the receipt, from an originating owner, of title to each pool of technology assets in exchange for an equity interest in the development entity and an option to re-acquire the pool upon payment of a reacquisition fee to at least one primary investor.

Frip: Got the greatest thing since sliced bread, just need a little money.

EXCHANGE TRADED PRODUCT SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,560,422 B1; 10/15/2013; Class 705/36R; 9 claims; assigned to Security Investors, LLC.

Managing assets of a trust owning a controlled foreign corporation (CFC), the system including means for associating the CFC with the trust owning the CFC and means for tracking assets associated with the CFC and the trust owning the CFC, the system using Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), which are similar to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

Frip: Maybe avoiding taxes, eh?

METHOD AND A SYSTEM FOR IMPROVED TRADING OF COMBINATIONS AND BAITS GENERATED THEREOF; US 8,560,424 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/37; 12 claims; assigned to OMX Technology AB (Sweden).

Relating to an automated exchange system, and in particular to an automated exchange designed to execute matching of combinations of financial instruments.

Frip: Wondering what “baits” are”? Well, “baits are orders in the outright market of the legs comprised in the standard combination set at prices such that the combination order as a whole will match the prices of the legs in the outright market.” Got that?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ADDING LIQUIDITY TO ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT TRANSACTIONS; US 8,560,425 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/37; 22 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating generally to improving liquidity for equity interests that cannot be efficiently monetized, by dividing up the cash flows from the equity interests and efficiently distributing them among different classes of investors.

Frip: Do you find yourself always in the investor class getting the short end of the investment?

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR RETRIEVING DATA STORED IN DATABASE; US 8,560,426 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/37; 68 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Providing a computer-implemented, transaction-making, municipal bond trading system having a capability to conduct a private electronic auction of bid wanteds between a central brokers’ broker and multiple prospective remote bidders and to maintain a reference database of accurate individual bond lot descriptions and identifications, including CUSIP (trademark) numbers.

Frip: Everybody’s gettin’ in on trading system patents.

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR RETRIEVING DATA STORED IN A DATABASE; US 8,560,427 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/37; 75 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Providing a computer-implemented, transaction-making, municipal bond trading system having a capability to conduct a private electronic auction of bid wanteds between a central brokers’ broker and multiple prospective remote bidders and to maintain a reference database of accurate individual bond lot descriptions and identifications, including CUSIP (trademark) numbers.

Frip: Two crucial distinctions between this patent and the preceding: (1) 75 claims versus 68, and (2) this patent refers to “A Database” while preceding patent refers to just “Database.”

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ONLINE TRADING USING AN ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEET; US 8,560,428 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/37; 10 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing a system and method for receiving streamed, real time investment quotes, applying a spreadsheet based investment strategy to the real time quotes, generating electronic orders based on the results of the investment strategy analysis, and transmitting the orders for real time execution, the system being particularly for online trading in Over-The-Counter (OTC) instruments.

Frip: JP, entering the exchange business. Wonder if the OCC knows?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSISTED AWARENESS; US 8,560,429 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Recording a predetermined amount of market information received via a data feed for a tradeable object into a memory to store a recorded portion of the market information as the market information is received, and replaying, via the computing device, the recorded portion in response to detecting a triggerable event in the data feed, the recorded portion including information for the tradeable object received in the data feed prior to the triggerable event being detected.

Frip: Human-computer interface. Pretty soon it’s just gonna be computer-computer interface.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING A SPOT MARKET; US 8,560,432 B1; 10/15/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Ariba, Inc.

Receiving a request to procure goods or services for immediate delivery, notifying potential bidders, conducting an auction, and selecting one or more winning bidders.

Frip: Hey Patent Examiner. Weren’t you just a little queasy about this one? Auctions have been around for a pretty long time.

TRANSACTION PROCESSING WITH CORE AND DISTRIBUTOR PROCESSOR IMPLEMENTATIONS; US 8,560,439 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/39; 23 claims; assigned to Syncada LLC.

Directed to transaction processing and, more specifically, to a transaction processing system and approach involving the processing of a multitude of transactions on behalf of and integrally with distributors and, where appropriate, financing trade-based credit aspects of the processed transactions.

Frip: In other words, the whole accounting enchilada.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING A CREDIT CARD WITH MULTIPLE CREDIT LINES; US 8,560,440 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/39; 15 claims; assigned to Capital One Financial Corporation.

Relating to systems and methods that provide a credit card product with more than one credit line, such as a credit card with a general purpose credit line and a private label credit line.

Frip: More confusion for the consumer? But hey, the marketplace at work.

MANAGING VARIABLE TO FIXED PAYMENTS IN AN INTERNATIONAL ACH; US 8,560,441 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/39; 32 claims; assigned to Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Relating generally to managing foreign payments in an International ACH (Automated Clearinghouse), and more particularly to managing variable to fixed payments in an International ACH.

Frip: Hey, are you Fed guys supposed to be gettin’ patents on stuff?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING ENHANCED ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR MULTIPLE BANKS; US 8,560,442 B1; 10/15/2013; Class 705/39; 15 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Providing systems and methods that deliver account management services to multiple participating financial institutions (including banks) so that they may offer to their customers interest-earning, deposit accounts without withdrawal restrictions and/or with enhanced deposit insurance, the invention’s management methods preferably maintaining each participating financial institution's total customer funds on deposit.

Frip: Yankin’ the FDIC’s chain maybe?

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MANAGING TRANSACTION CARD ACCOUNTS; US 8,560,445 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/40; 13 claims; assigned to Citicorp Credit Services, Inc.

Providing a customer a transaction card account against which the customer can charge predetermined types of transactions during predefined account statement periods and sending a statement of charges against the account to the customer at an end of each account statement period specifying a due date after which a predefined late fee is assessed on the account if the statement is not paid, the late fee, however, being automatically waived on the account within specified products if the customer makes a purchase or secures a cash advance during the account statement period for which the payment is due.

Frip: Got that customer? You may be charged a late fee, then again maybe not.

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ROUTING PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS; US 8,560,452 B2; 10/15/2013; Class 705/43; 19 claims; assigned to Citicorp Credit Services, Inc.

Interrogating by computer logic each payment transaction received by a payments interface processor to identify a payment destination and a payment source and to determine, according to pre-defined parameters, whether the payment transaction is eligible for processing via an internal payment transaction processor of the financial institution that minimizes processing costs, eligible payment transactions being routed, for example, to an internal debit or credit card processor or ACH processor, and ineligible payment transactions being routed to external card processing networks.

Frip: “Interrogating by computer logic.” Ponder that for awhile.

October 22, 2013

PATENT SUMMARY

VIRTUAL GIFT CARD; US 8,566,169 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/26; 36 claims; assigned to Bank Of America Corporation.

Providing virtual gift credit that automatically attaches to a gift recipient's payment account upon determination that an alias provided by the gift provider is registered with the payment account.

Frip: BofA, it's probably not necessary to patent everything.

MANAGING CONSISTENT INTERFACES FOR FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT BUSINESS OBJECTS ACROSS HETEROGENEOUS SYSTEMS; US 8,566,185 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/30; 6 claims; assigned to SAP AG (Germany).

Relating to the generation and use of consistent interfaces or services that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business.

Frip: Patent on attaining consistency. Cool.

INTERACTIVE ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD; US 8,566,187 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/30; 19 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Directed to a computer-implemented interactive account management system operated in cooperation with a financial institution on behalf of multiple account holders, the system including a financial networking engine implemented by a processor for defining a financial network for each account holder and for identifying each member of an account holder financial network based on stored account information and account holder input, and more. Frip: You go, JP.

GENERATING AN ANNUITY PAYMENT USING A DYNAMIC ASSET ALLOCATION INVESTMENT; US 8,566,191 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/35; 27 claims; assigned to FMR LLC.

Providing an annuity to an annuitant based on the performance of an investment, the assets of the investment being automatically reallocated over time and the annuity payment changing based on the performance of the automatically reallocated assets, the reallocation of assets being in some examples based on a demographic, which could include an age, a range of ages, a gender, or two or more of them.

Frip: Whut up?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MONEY FUND BANKING WITH FLEXIBLE INTEREST ALLOCATION; US 8,566,200 B1; 10/22/2013; Class 705/35; 28 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Relating generally to computerized account management techniques and, more specifically, to techniques by which financial entities may offer accounts allowing unlimited withdrawals while the deposited funds earn interest at rates that can be flexibly assigned and are covered by deposit insurance.

Frip: The ol' FDIC can't catch a break.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MONEY FUND BANKING WITH FLEXIBLE INTEREST ALLOCATION; US 8,566,201 B1; 10/22/2013; Class 705/35; 17 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Same-same.

Frip: Claim 1 describes what's going in 752 easy reading words.

USER IDENTIFICATION USING MOBILE DEVICE; US 8,566,203 B1; 10/22/2013; Class 705/35; 20 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Identifying a user at a facility, in some embodiments the system being configured to (1) determine a user has entered a facility or is a predetermined distance from the facility, wherein the user has a mobile device, (2) communicate with the mobile device to identify the user, (3) access information associated with the user, the information comprising information associated with the user's account, and (4) perform an action based on identifying the user.

Frip: BofA is trackin' yo sorry a**.

SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MAKING MARKETS FOR A FINITE SUBSET OF ORDERS PLACED ACROSS CONTINUOUS AND COUNTABLY INFINITE OUTCOME SPACES; US 8,566,205 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/36R; 10 claims; assigned to Yahoo! Inc.

Aggregating information about orders specifying a continuous subspace of a continuous outcome space and orders specifying a subset of a countably infinite set of outcomes, the pricing and quantities for orders received being determined, a response being sent to traders, and the amount owed for accepted orders being collected.

Frip: Yahoo refers to the subject matter as a "prediction market."

BIMODAL COMPUTER-BASED SYSTEM FOR SELLING FINANCIAL PRODUCTS; US 8,566,208 B1; 10/22/2013; Class 705/36R; 26 claims; assigned to Leadfusion Incorporated.

Providing financial product education, research, and recommendation tools, the tools operating in a self-service mode adapted for use by a consumer.

Frip: Just what a consumer needs, instructions on how to go broke.

ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A TRADING INTERFACE WITH ADVANCED FEATURES; US 8,566,212 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/37; 36 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Providing a trading interface with advanced features, including a customized keyboard and various trading interfaces, that a trader can use to create orders, manipulate orders, cancel orders, cycle through multiple issues, obtain trading information more relevant than limit price stacks (for example, through different types of quadrants), or efficiently buy or sell items inside or within the spread market.

Frip: Customized keyboard. That's a patent in itself.

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR RETRIEVING DATA STORED IN A DATABASE; US 8,566,215 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Providing a computer-implemented, transaction-making, municipal bond trading system having a capability to conduct a private electronic auction of bid wanteds between a central brokers' broker and multiple prospective remote bidders and to maintain a reference database of accurate individual bond lot descriptions and identifications, including CUSIP (trademark) numbers.

Frip: Going from database searching to municipal bond trading without even breathing hard.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRADING EXPOSURE CLEARING HOUSE; US 8,566,216 B1; 10/22/2013; Class 705/37; 15 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing a computer-implemented trading exposure management method for centrally managing trading exposures within an industry, the method maybe including receiving a client request for additional exposure capacity above a predetermined client exposure limit with respect to a particular counterparty and selecting a third party with available exposure capacity with respect to the particular counterparty, and additionally maybe transferring at least a portion of the selected third party's available exposure capacity with respect to the particular counterparty to the client.

Frip: Sounds like musical chairs.SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MATCHING ONE OR MORE INCOMING ORDER TO A STANDING ORDER AS A FUNCTION OF AN INNER MARKET PARAMETER; US 8,566,218 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/37; 25 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Receiving an incoming order, establishing an inner market representing a first portion of an order book which may be defined as a function of an inner market parameter, designating the first portion of the order book as a priority and allocating the first portion of the received incoming order based on the priority, establishing an outer market that represents a second portion of the order book that includes the remainder of the order book, assigning the received incoming order to one of the inner or outer markets as a function of the inner market parameter, allocating a first portion of the incoming order to the inner market utilizing a first-in, first-out (FIFO) algorithm, and allocating a second portion, in excess of the first portion, of the incoming order to the outer market using a pro-rata algorithm.

Frip: If human survival depends on understanding the functioning of trading exchanges, we're toast.

COMPOUND ORDER HANDLING IN AN ANONYMOUS TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,566,221 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/37; 17 claims; assigned to EBS Group Limited (UK).

Providing an anonymous trading system for trading financial instruments, such as foreign exchange and forward rate agreements, between traders, the invention being particularly concerned with the handling of compound orders input into such systems, compound orders being multiple orders which are subject to a limit or condition or joint execution orders where a number of orders must all be executed or none at all.

Frip: Patent on compound order trading.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO BALANCE PORTFOLIOS OF SECURITIES; US 8,566,223 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to Motif Investing, Inc.

Relating to systems and methods for client securities transactions where a balancing engine provides that any constituent moved by a client remains at a declared level and remaining constituents are proportionally balanced so that the sum of the weights adds to 100 percent.

Frip: Guess the PTO doesn't go along with the judiciary on an aversion to software patents.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO CREATE, COMPARE, CUSTOMIZE, PROMOTE, TRACK, OPTIMIZE AND SHOP FOR INDEX OR THEME BASED PORTFOLIOS OF SECURITIES; US 8,566,224 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/37; 21 claims; assigned to Motif Investing, Inc.

Processing a client index or theme-based basket order as a single order, the process resulting in the trading of fraction shares in real time and, by executing principal trades against an inventory account, a reduction in the frequency of orders sent to market.

Frip: Faster, faster! The markets must be faster!

DIVERSE OPTIONS ORDER TYPES IN AN ELECTRONIC GUARANTEED ENTITLEMENT ENVIRONMENT; US 8,566,225 B2; 10/22/2013; Class 705/37; 11 claims; assigned to NYSE Group, Inc.

Providing a method for enhancing quote and order integration that includes providing a market center that lists a plurality of options series, wherein the market center has an order book for each option series, has a market maker quote book for each option series, and receives the top-of-book best bid and offer disseminated quotation from each away market center for each option series, and wherein the order book, the market maker quote book, and the best bid and offer quotations are separate until an execution opportunity is presented.

Frip: Shoulda' put these guys and gals on designing the Obamacare website. Or maybe not.

October 29, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYLIFETIME FINANCIAL PRODUCT; US 8,571,896 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/4; 9 claims; assigned to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

Combining a uniquely structured deposit product (for example, certificate of deposit (CD)) with an insurance policy (for example, group longevity insurance policy) to guarantee a lifetime stream of income to a customer.

Frip: If it’s not a process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, what is it?

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FUNDING AND OPERATING A MUNICIPAL FINANCIAL GUARANTY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY; US 8,571,899 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/4; 5 claims; assigned to HG Global Ltd. (Bermuda).

Processing data and instructions to track insurance premiums paid by members of a municipal financial guaranty mutual insurance company, monitor private investment capital into a holding firm, follow the investment of a first subset of the the holding firm capital into the municipal financial guaranty mutual insurance company in exchange for first promissory notes, track a second subset of the private investment capital of the holding firm into a reinsurance firm, follow the investment of a segment of the second subset of the private investment capital of the reinsurance firm into the municipal financial guaranty mutual insurance company in exchange for second promissory notes, and manage reinsurance firm first loss claims from the municipal financial guaranty mutual insurance company.

Frip: Sound finance, Bermuda style.

COMMUNITY GENERATED SCENARIOS; US 8,571,917 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/7.29; 31 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to systems, methods, and computer program products for determining events that are likely to occur in the future based on community generated feedback, the process making abundant use of the Internet. Frip: Patent on Internet gossip and drivel?

ELECTRONIC FINANCIAL TRANSACTION WAREHOUSE; US 8,571,957 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/35; 20 claims; assigned to USAA.

Providing a method of managing all personal financial accounts by providing an electronically accessible repository containing financial asset and liability account information.

Frip: Sort of like a bank, eh?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COALESCING MARKET DATA AT A NETWORK DEVICE; US 8,571,959 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/35; 20 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing a system and related methods for distributing time sensitive information using software that manages communication between a network device and a client device residing within an electronic trading environment, the invention being generally directed to controlling bandwidth allocation in an electronic trading environment, and in particular, managing time-sensitive communication.

Frip: TTI, gettin’ in the bandwidth business.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ALLOCATION TO OBTAIN ZERO ACTIVITY IN ONE OR MORE SELECTED AGGREGATED DEPOSIT ACCOUNTS; US 8,571,960 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/35; 35 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Managing aggregated accounts, apparently so as to maximize deposit insurance coverage.

Frip: Stickin’ it in the FDIC’s eye.

MANAGING CONSISTENT INTERFACES FOR FINANCIAL BUSINESS OBJECTS ACROSS HETEROGENEOUS SYSTEMS; US 8,571,961 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/36R; 2 claims; assigned to SAP AG (Germany).

Relating generally to the generation and use of consistent interfaces (or services) derived from a business object model, and more particularly, to the generation and use of consistent interfaces or services that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business.

Frip: Claim 1 has 685 words. Guess it takes a lot of words to describe interface generation and use.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATICALLY REINVESTING CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSITS WITH AN INCREASE OF THE INVESTMENT; US 8,571,962 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/36R; 18 claims; assigned to USAA.

Providing systems and methods for automatic certificate of deposit investing, the systems involving subsystems configured for automatically purchasing a first certificate of deposit for an investor for a specified amount of money having a predetermined term, for waiting a predetermined period of time no longer than the term of the first certificate of deposit, for automatically purchasing another certificate of deposit for an investor for the specified amount of money and having the same predetermined term, and for repeating the actions until a second specified amount of money has been spent.

Frip: Was a patent really necessary?

METHOD OF ADMINISTERING AN INVESTMENT FUND; US 8,571,963 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/36R; 14 claims; assigned to The Vanguard Group, Inc.

Creating shares for sale, providing a managed distribution schedule, providing an investment strategy, issuing a share to an investor in exchange for funds received from the investor, investing the received funds according to the investment strategy, calculating the value of each of the payments to be provided, and providing each of the payments to the investor during the period.

Frip: Well, why not?METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MEASURING COMPARATIVE DATA; US 8,571,964 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/37; 27 claims; assigned to CFPH, LLC.

Determining a first instance in which a first request is received by an exchange, determining a second instance in which a second request is received by the exchange, the second request being a request to cancel the first request, determining a third instance in which a third request is received by the exchange, the third request corresponding to the first request, calculating a first difference between the second and the third instances, storing the first difference to a data storage, and analyzing the plurality of differences to generate comparative information.

Frip: Say what?

TECHNIQUES FOR REDUCING DELTA VALUES OF CREDIT RISK POSITIONS IN ONLINE TRADING OF CREDIT DERIVATIVES; US 8,571,965 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/37; 21 claims; assigned to Creditex Group, Inc.

Determining delta offsets to be applied to delta values of the credit risk positions held by at least two trader clients and having at least two maturity dates, such that an overall delta of each of the trader clients’ credit risk positions remains substantially unchanged after the application of the delta offsets, calculating, based on the determined delta offsets, notional amounts of credit derivative trades needed to realize the delta offsets, and executing the credit derivative trades among the trader clients.

Frip: For the uninitiated, a delta value may be calculated as a first order derivative between the present value of a credit default swap (CDS) contract and a corresponding CDS spread. Got that?

ELECTRONIC COMPLETION OF CASH VERSUS FUTURES BASIS TRADES; US 8,571,970 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Providing a system for the simultaneous electronic trading of cash instruments and their related futures contracts for interest-rate related instruments, the system allowing a user to predetermine the exact weighting algorithm to be used on such a basis trade, to adjust the preferences where necessary or desired, and to gauge his chance of success at completing both sides of a basis trade within a preferably pre-determined or pre-set interval.

Frip: Selecting your own algorithm. How cool is that?

CREDIT APPLICATION STATUS MONITOR; US 8,571,971 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/38; 12 claims; assigned to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

Providing access to an automatically generated and automatically updated status report providing information about conditions required for final credit approval, the status report being available via computer systems used by parties to the credit decision-making process, such as the potential borrower, the creditor, and a business partner working with the potential borrower and creditor.

Frip: Puttin’ your life on the Internets.

ELECTRONIC CLOSING; US 8,571,973 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/38; 30 claims; assigned to CoreLogic Solutions, LLC.

Providing an electronic closing platform facilitating the provision of a variety of closing services for lenders, closing agents, borrowers or other parties to closing transactions.

Frip: And puttin’ some folks out of work?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SENDING MONEY VIA E-MAIL OVER THE INTERNET; US 8,571,975 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/39; 29 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Relating to a system and method for sending money via electronic mail and, more particularly, to a system and method for sending money via electronic mail over a computer network wherein a sender identifies a withdraw account such as a checking account or a credit card account and a receiver identifies a deposit account such as a checking account or credit card account.

Frip: Ah, the mystery of intangible money becoming tangible.

METHODS, SOFTWARE PROGRAMS, AND SYSTEMS FOR MANAGING ONE OR MORE LIABILITIES; US 8,571,976 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/39; 18 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Relating to various methods, software programs, and systems for managing one or more liabilities, and more particularly, to debt in the form of at least one credit issued by a borrower.

Frip: Goldman must be feeling left out of the patent sweepstakes.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING SELLER BANK RECEIVABLE DISCOUNTING AGGREGATION SERVICES; US 8,571,977 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/39; 27 claims; assigned to Visa International Service Association.

Providing a system for conducting commercial transactions between buyers and sellers, the system including a transaction processing system for facilitating payments, for interactions with issuers and acquirers, for managing payment information, and for offering a number of additional financing services including, for example, buyer payment assurance, buyer bank payment assurance, buyer bank payable discounting, buyer bank payable discount aggregation, seller receivable financing and seller bank receivable discount aggregation.

Frip: Discounts. They make you feel good.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING ASSURANCE AND FINANCING SERVICES; US 8,571,978 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/39; 30 claims; assigned to Visa International Service Association.

About the same as the preceding, only a little different.

Frip: In the case of very similar patents by the same entity, the PTO should require an explicit recitation of the differences.

ARRANGEMENTS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATICALLY DISPERSING AND TRACKING FUNDS; US 8,571,979 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/39; 15 claims; assigned to TCF Financial Corporation.

Providing, for use with a banking institution and another corporate entity that is operated independently of the banking institution, a computer-facilitated method for rendering funds associated with a master account holding funds of the other corporate entity and having a plurality of sub-accounts and according to account management terms between the banking institution and the other corporate entity, and so much more.

Frip: Describe in words a complex flow chart, get a patent.

CAPACITY CUSTOMIZATION FOR FRAUD FILTERING; US 8,571,982 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/39; 48 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing apparatuses, methods, or a combination of the foregoing for multi-stage filtering for fraud detection, the filtering process allowing for the ability to dynamically increase and decrease server capacity and application capacity to support fraud detection activities.

Frip: Multi-stage filtering. Sounds like an intestinal problem.

GIFT CARD COMBINATION; US 8,571,983 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/39; 18 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Receiving information associated with a first gift card and associating the first gift card with an account, receiving information associated with a second gift card and associating the gift card with the account, and enabling combining the first gift card and the second gift card into an asset determined by a user of the account.

Frip: BofA says there is a need for updating the process of how gift cards work. Who are we to disagree?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING ENHANCED ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR MULTIPLE BANKS; US 8,571,984 B1; 10/29/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Providing systems and methods that deliver account management services to multiple participating financial institutions (including banks) so that they may offer to their customers interest-earning, deposit accounts without withdrawal restrictions and with enhanced deposit insurance, the invention's management methods preferably maintaining each participating financial institution's total customer funds on deposit.

Frip: The FDIC’s just gotta grin and bear it.

DEPENDENT PAYMENT DEVICE; US 8,571,986 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/41; 57 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to apparatuses and methods for a dependent payment device, such as a credit card, which provides credit privileges to dependent users and flexible control mechanisms over the use of the dependent payment device to the account holder, the control mechanisms including the ability to set maximum spending limits.

Frip: Now here’s a credit card, Son. The limit is $2.79 per transaction and three transactions per week. Enjoy.

ELECTRONIC MONEY SYSTEM, ELECTRONIC MONEY TERMINAL DEVICE, AND INFORMATION CARD; US 8,571,988 B2; 10/29/2013; Class 705/43; 13 claims; assigned to Sony Corporation (Japan).

Providing an electronic money system that includes a plurality of electronic money terminals for withdrawing a sum of money which is spent by a user from money data which has been deposited into an information card, the system maintaining utilization-history data on the use of the card at the plurality electronic money terminals.

Frip: The Bank of Sony?November 5, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYDOCUMENT PROCESSING SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR REGULATORY CERTIFICATIONS; US 8,577,773 B2; 11/5/2013; Class 705/36T; 19 claims; assigned to Acupay System LLC.

Relating generally to automated financial data collection, processing, and reporting, and more particularly to a system and method of efficiently collecting and processing investor certifications of regulatory or tax status, such as tax related information, and also to the synchronization of such certifications with data to establish or determine the entitlement of investors to own or receive income on securities in accord with various governmental, tax, or contractually determined constraints.

Frip: World very complicated.

DERIVATIVES HAVING DEMAND-BASED, ADJUSTABLE RETURNS, AND TRADING EXCHANGE THEREFOR; US 8,577,778 B2; 11/5/2013; Class 705/37; 68 claims; assigned to Longitude LLC.

Relating to systems and methods for demand-based trading, and more specifically, to methods and systems for trading financial products and derivatives strategies, including digital options and other derivatives, having demand-based adjustable returns, and systems and methods for determining those returns.

Frip: Well, I suppose.SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR FACILITATING INFORMED TRADING OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS; US 8,577,779 B2; 11/5/2013; Class 705/37; 3 claims; assigned to optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.

Relating to an improved mode of online communication relating to automatic trade orders by which an investor is able to obtain added market information so that the investor can make more fully informed investment decisions and trade in line with those decisions, the added market information including that which reveals relationships between a particular financial instrument, a target security chosen by the investor, and other securities such as the relationship of what one or more securities were purchased in the past generally contemporaneously with the target security. Frip: “Generally contemporaneously.” Now that’s a mouthful well worth a patent.

METHOD FOR SCHEDULING FUTURE ORDERS ON AN ELECTRONIC COMMODITY TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,577,781 B2; 11/5/2013; Class 705/37; 33 claims; assigned to Cunningham Trading Systems, LLC.

Relating to a method of trading commodities over an electronic exchange, and more particularly, to a method for more quickly and efficiently scheduling future buy or sell orders to be executed at precise future dates and times.

Frip: Speed, more speed.

TRADING WITH CONDITIONAL OFFERS FOR SEMI-ANONYMOUS PARTICIPANTS; US 8,577,782 B2; 11/5/2013; Class 705/37; 32 claims.

Providing a method for generating conditional offers for semi-anonymous trading participants, the method comprising, in one embodiment, associating a trading entity with an identifier, acquiring trade history information including a history of trading transactions associated with the identifier, and receiving an offer from a Liquidity Provider based on the trade history information, the offer being only made to the trading entity associated with one of the identifiers.

Frip: Is it really possible to be semi-anonymous?

TRADING SYSTEM HAVING INCREASED LIQUIDITY PROVISION; US 8,577,784 B2; 11/5/2013; Class 705/37; 2 claims; assigned to EBS Group Limited (UK).

Providing an anonymous trading system that includes a prime broker facility allowing a third party to trade on behalf of an institution, a deal being executed between the third party and a counter-party and a further deal being then executed between the third party and the party on whose behalf it has traded, the second deal maybe being for the same amount as the first deal or maybe being altered to include the third party's fee for conducting the first deal, and more.

Frip: Don’t nobody want to know who they’re trading with?

METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR OBTAINING BEST EXECUTION OF ORDERS TO BUY OR SELL A FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT FOR WHICH A NET ASSET VALUE IS PERIODICALLY CALCULATED; US 8,577,787 B1; 11/5/2013; Class 705/37; 37 claims; assigned to Navigate Fund Solutions LLC.

Providing methods and computer systems for determining the appropriate nature, size, sequence, and latency of orders to be entered into alternative trading venues to improve executions for trade orders for financial instruments, primarily exchange traded funds (ETFs), for which a net asset value is periodically calculated.

Frip: Latency is such a cool word.

COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHODS AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS FOR AN ELECTRONIC FINANCIAL PLATFORM; US 8,577,790 B1; 11/5/2013; Class 705/37; 28 claims.

Related to computer-implemented methods and computer systems for an electronic financial platform for trading commodities, assets, financial instruments, and so on.

Frip: What “so ons” follow commodities, assets, and financial instruments?

FORECLOSURE PREVENTION AND PROTECTION; US 8,577,792 B2; 11/5/2013; Class 705/38; 27 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Related to methods and systems for proceedings in which a secured party has executed on collateral due to nonpayment prevention, protection, or both.

Frip: Yeah, them secured parties can be pretty nasty.

MULTI-VARIABLE, MULTI-PARTY AUCTION AND PROCESS TO PROP-UP UNDERWATER MORTGAGES, AND STABILIZE/RESTORE MARKET VALUES; US 8,577,793 B1; 11/5/2013; Class 705/38; 5 claims.

Related, In a particularly preferred embodiment, to transactions directed toward creation of investment products designed to be used for the financing and refinancing of mortgage loans.

Frip: A patent to save the economy.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COLLECTING INFORMATION TO FACILITATE ENROLLMENT IN AN ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER PROGRAM; US 8,577,794 B2; 11/5/2013; Class 705/39; 72 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing an improved system and method by which ultimate customers may input data needed to process electronic transactions generally and EFT transactions in particular.

Frip: What happens when everybody’s finances are online and the grid collapses?

ELECTRONIC CASH LETTER PROCESSING; US 8,577,797 B1; 11/5/2013; Class 705/39; 17 claims; assigned to The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Directed to processing image cash letter files that include transaction records relating to accounts handled by more than one image exchange system (for example, more than one financial institution).

Frip: Will bitcom and other virtual currencies make this stuff obsolete?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR VIRTUAL BANKING; US 8,577,805 B1; 11/5/2013; Class 705/45; 18 claims; assigned to USAA.

Providing mechanisms for virtual banking that provide experiences to users as if they were actually interacting with a branch office bank.

Frip: Virtual surly tellers?SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONDUCTING TRANSACTIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS USING A TRUSTED THIRD PARTY; US 8,577,812 B2; 11/5/2013; Class 705/75; 19 claims; assigned to Intertrust Technologies Corporation.

Providing systems and methods that enable parties to exchange information in a trusted manner, ensuring that none of the parties can end the exchange prematurely after obtaining their desired output but without allowing the other parties to obtain their output, the system using a trusted party, the escrow server, which can be implemented using relatively little resources, the system being generalized to accommodate many escrow servers such that only collusion between a large number of them would be able to cheat a user of the system.

Frip: A patent on no cheating.November 12, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYCHECK PROCESSING AND FUNDS VERIFICATION; US 8,583,492 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/16; 20 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing a system and method of verifying funds associated with a negotiable instrument, such as a check, money order, traveler's check, check item, and the like, prior to accepting the instrument as payment, the process covering a variety of situations.

Frip: Does this preclude any other financial institution from developing a check processing and verification system?

TRANSFER ACCOUNT SYSTEMS, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS, AND ASSOCIATED COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHODS; US 8,583,515 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/30; 20 claims; assigned to Metabank.

Relating to systems, computer program products, and associated computer-implemented methods of providing prioritized payments from proceeds of automatic deposits.

Frip: Another patent on back-office processing?

BUSINESS METHOD FOR CREATING COLLATERIZED DEBT INSTRUMENTS WITH TWO NEGOTIABLE PAYMENT PLANS; US 8,583,525 B1; 11/12/2013; Class 705/35; 4 claims.

Relating to a business method for transforming an original negotiable collaterized debt instrument into two negotiable collaterized resulting debt instruments with two payment plans, and more particularly, to such a method wherein one of the payment plans is deferred for a predetermined period of time. Frip: If one loan ain’t bad enough. . . .

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REMOTE DEPOSIT CAPTURE; US 8,583,526 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/35; 16 claims; assigned to Metropolitan Life Insurance, Co.

Providing a system that includes one or more remote check deposit locations and one or more treasury receipt servers to receive (1) check information captured from the remote check deposit locations and (2) transaction data from an originating depository financial institution (ODFI), the transaction data including an amount of funds available from clearing the captured check information.

Frip: Payment stuff is so confusing.

METHOD OF PURCHASING A PRODUCT TO AVOID ADVERSE SELECTION; US 8,583,529 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/36R; 3 claims.

Providing a method for automatic purchase of products, such as insurance products, by one or more third parties acting on behalf of a purchaser and for automatic deductions from an income source to pay for the product, the method using stored data regarding the products and information provided to a purchaser from the stored data based upon inquiries from the purchaser, the method concluding with a purchase or not along with payment for the purchaser.

Frip: Adverse selection meaning individuals from long-living families tend to purchase annuities, and individuals from short-living families tend to purchase life insurance, thus messing with the insurance industry.

SYSTEM, METHOD, ARTICLE FOR FACILITATING DERIVATIVES TRANSACTIONS; US 8,583,533 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/36R; 23 claims; assigned to Direct Swap Inc.

Providing a derivatives transaction service that includes qualifying prospective users of the service based on a user type and credit evaluation, determining approved transaction types for qualified users, identifying approved risk mitigation methods for qualified users, enrolling qualified users in the service, and providing to a qualified user services such as transaction search services, transaction offer services, portfolio management services, and transaction negotiation services.

Frip: And all for just a nominal fee.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MULTI-MARKET RISK CONTROL IN A DISTRIBUTED ELECTRONIC TRADING ENVIRONMENT; US 8,583,534 B1; 11/12/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International Inc.

Providing a central risk controller that can communicate with a plurality of local risk management modules located at a plurality of gateways, a portion of a central account balance associated with a trading account being allocated to each local risk management module that, as the trades are made using the trading account, manage risk associated with the trades until the local account balance is insufficient, at which point the central risk controller is queried for the additional risk account balance.

Frip: TTI, moving beyond graphical display patents.

CROSS TRADING SECURITIES DURING TIME WINDOWS AT THE VOLUME WEIGHTED AVERAGE PRICE; US 8,583,537 B1; 11/12/2013; Class 705/37; 21 claims; assigned to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

Accepting, under one embodiment, offers to buy and sell a security during a first window of time, calculating the volume weighted average price of the security during a second window of time, and cross trading the offers.

Frip: Hope Wells is keeping this activity separate from customer checking accounts.

PROVIDING VALID RESPONSES TO REQUESTS FOR QUOTATIONS; US 8,583,538 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Receiving a request from a requesting participant for a market-validated offer to sell an item, receiving an offer price from a responding participant in response to the request, and providing a bid to an electronic marketplace, the bid including a price that is lower than the received offer price.

Frip: So what are invalid responses?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ROUTING TRADING ORDERS; US 8,583,540 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Determining that a first trading entity disclosed to the trading platform a reserve quantity of a first trading order, determining that a second trading entity did not disclose a reserve quantity of a second trading order, routing a received third trading order to the first trading entity.

Frip: Second guy outta luck, eh?FINANCIAL PRODUCTS BASED ON A SERIALIZED INDEX; US 8,583,542 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/37; 17 claims; assigned to IntercontinentalExchange, Inc.

Relating to computer systems and methods for listing and trading financial instruments that track market indices.

Frip: Track an index right into the porcelain receptacle.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR QUICK QUOTE CONFIGURATION; US 8,583,543 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/37; 7 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International Inc.

Providing a trader the capability to quickly configure the quoting side of a trading tool without the normal delays associated with conventional methods of quoting, the process allowing the user to essentially on-the-fly configure the trading tool to work, after receipt of a first order, a second order in another tradeable object, the system taking specific actions such as deleting the order in the first tradeable object and automatically entering the second order in the other tradeable object.

Frip: Hope traders receive a little training first. Otherwise, say hello to chaos.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FACILITATING ELECTRONIC SECURITIES TRANSACTIONS; US 8,583,544 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/37; 17 claims; assigned to State Street Global Markets, LLC.

In one embodiment, receiving order information from an order management system, sending a subset of the order information to an electronic trading marketplace, receiving a quantity value from the marketplace corresponding to a quantity of shares in a matched contra-interest, determining whether an available quantity of shares in the order information is at least the received quantity value, sending a commitment message to the marketplace if the received quantity value is less than or equal to the available quantity of shares in the order information, and sending a deny trade message to the marketplace if the received quantity value is greater than the available quantity of shares in the order information.

Frip: Whatever.SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MONEY FUND BANKING WITH FLEXIBLE INTEREST ALLOCATION; US 8,583,545 B1; 11/12/2013; Class 705/38; 13 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Relating to a system, method, and program product for administering fund movements, such as sweep programs, and fund exchange programs.

Frip: Barely even mentioned the evil nemesis, the (in a lowered voice) FDIC.

ELECTRONIC CASH LETTER PROCESSING; US 8,583,546 B1; 11/12/2013; Class 705/39; 18 claims; assigned to The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Directed to processing image cash letter files that include transaction records relating to accounts handled by more than one image exchange system (for example, more than one financial institution).

Frip: Cash letters? Aren’t they going the way of the Post Office?

PRECIOUS METAL FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT; US 8,583,547 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/39; 14 claims.

Providing a precious metals investment product that marries the benefits of direct ownership of physical precious metals, provides a more efficient and democratic delivery option of the investment for small investors, eliminates a third party trust entity for the ownership and associated management of the metal between the investor and the underlying metal, and provides an efficient diversification characteristic affording ease of trade and real time pricing capabilities.

Frip: Arggh Matey, pieces of eight.

PROCESSING PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING SYSTEMS; US 8,583,552 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/40; 12 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Receiving, by a payor, an invoice generated, in a first format, from a first enterprise resource planning (ERP) system operated by a payee, storing the invoice in a second format compatible with a second ERP system, receiving approval of the invoice through the second ERP system, authorizing a financial institution to transmit a payment to the payee, and providing confirmation of the payment to the payee (and maybe also the payor?).

Frip: BofA surges ahead in the race to patent everything.

DEPENDENT PAYMENT DEVICE; US 8,583,554 B2; 11/12/2013; Class 705/41; 20 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to apparatuses and methods for a dependent payment device, such as a credit card, which provides credit privileges to dependent users and flexible control mechanisms over the use of the dependent payment device to the account holder.

Frip: I wanna be a dependent on someone’s account, but without them exercising “flexible control mechanisms.”

November 19, 2013

PATENT SUMMARY

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; US 8,589,196 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/7.11; 30 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing a method, system, computer program product, or a combination of the foregoing for creating a knowledge management system for production support that is standardized and centralized across the channels and sub-channels in an organization, one use of the system being the tracking and resolving of incidents.

Frip: Quick! We got an incident! Turn on Hal.

GEOGRAPHIC AREA MULTIPLE SERVICE CARD SYSTEM; US 8,589,225 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/14.3; 20 claims; assigned to American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

Relating to a system for providing a single card that functions as both a credit card, for gaining access to credit services provided by a primary party, and a transportation card, for gaining access to one or more transportation systems administered by a service partner.

Frip: A card for your credit cards.

SYSTEM FOR IMPLEMENTING A SECURITY ISSUER RIGHTS MANAGEMENT PROCESS OVER A DISTRIBUTED COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK DEPLOYED IN A FINANCIAL MARKETPLACE; US 8,589,261 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/30; 30 claims; assigned to Interest Capturing Systems, LLC.

Relating to a method of, and system for, enabling companies issuing both equity and debt, and governments and government agencies issuing debt, to exercise the rights they possess as issuers of equity and debt in order to manage and optimize the utility and value of their offerings and holdings in the global financial marketplace. Frip: Huh?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FUNDING COMPANIES; US 8,589,269 B1; 11/19/2013; Class 705/35; 18 claims.

Relating to a method and system of funding companies, and particularly, startup companies based on new technologies, the method and system involving the funding of investment seeking companies (ISCs) by a funding company issuing, in exchange for private equity in the ISCs, a corresponding publicly tradeable class of its own stock substantially based on the performance of the ISCs.

Frip: Sounds reasonable, but what does Frip know?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING THE AMENDING OF SYNDICATED LOANS; US 8,589,272 B1; 11/19/2013; Class 705/35; 50 claims; assigned to LendAmend LLC.

Concerning a system and method for access and use by co-lenders to facilitate the process of voting on acceptance of proposed loan amendments.

Frip: Claim 1 describes the voting process in 431 words. That’s over 100 words more than were in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING HEALTHCARE COSTS; US 8,589,274 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/36; 19 claims; assigned to Open Market Partners, Inc.

Disclosing a system and method for creating a financial index related to healthcare costs and a related financial derivative instrument that can be used as a hedge against unexpected fluctuations of healthcare costs.

Frip: Aren’t derivatives bad for your health? You know, stress and stuff.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING TAX CODES BY COMPANY GROUP; US 8,589,275 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/36R; 24 claims; assigned to Ebay Inc.

Pertaining to a system and method for processing tax codes by company group in a front-end processor to bridge to a back-end purchasing system.

Frip: A patent to go from your front end to your back end.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A TRADING INTERFACE INCORPORATING A CHART; US 8,589,277 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/36R; 22 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing a trading interface that includes an integrated market grid region and a chart region that can be simultaneously used for order entry and market analysis, the chart region, under one example embodiment, displaying historical market data corresponding to a tradable object, the historical market data being mapped to a first plurality of values along a first value axis being used in relation to the chart region, the market grid region being displayed in alignment with the chart region and comprising a plurality of areas for receiving commands from a user input device to send trade orders to an electronic exchange. Frip: Patents on graphic interface displays should have a government agency all their own.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING ORDER MODIFIERS IN RELATION TO TRADING STRATEGIES; US 8,589,278 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/37; 21 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Providing a quantity modifier and a price modifier for a spread trading strategy having a desired spread price and a desired spread quantity, the quantity modifier, under an example embodiment, dividing the desired spread quantity into a plurality of disclosed spread quantities, disclosed spread orders having the disclosed spread quantities being then sequentially submitted to the market until the full desired spread order quantity is executed or until a predefined condition is detected, the price modifier determining a price level for each disclosed spread quantity such that each disclosed spread order may be submitted at a different price level.

Frip: Another patent category is rising—hedging and spreading patents.

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING AUTOMATIC EXECUTION OF GRAY BOX STRATEGIES FOR ELECTRONIC TRADING; US 8,589,280 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to Rosenthal Collins Group, LLC.

Disclosing a gray box trading entity that includes a black box portion (automatic trade execution) and a white box portion (manual trade execution), trades for black box and white box trades in the gray box trading entity being selecting by an electronic trader, the trades being dynamically changeable at any time.

Frip: Things are happening in financial markets that us mere mortals can’t even begin to imagine.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ELECTRONIC REMITTANCE OF FUNDS; US 8,589,288 B1; 11/19/2013; Class 705/39; 16 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Enabling a sending entity having a source account at a financial institution to schedule a payment transaction for withdrawal by a designated receiving entity, the process involving the automatic generation of a plurality of security codes, the designated receiving entity maybe submitting a request to retrieve the scheduled payment at a qualifying self-service machine, and other stuff.

Frip: JP’s been kinda quiet on the patent front lately. Maybe otherwise occupied, like with multi-billion dollar settlements for bringing the economy to its knees.

SYSTEM, METHOD AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR ADMINISTERING FUND MOVEMENTS; US 8,589,289 B1; 11/19/2013; Class 705/39; 35 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Generally relating to a system, method, and program product for administering fund movements, such as sweep programs, to using overdraft facilities, and to using a method that generates data for transfers by forming depository institutions into groups based at least in part on different cutoff times for participants in the system.

Frip: The list of other references in the specification is gargantuan.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRANSFERRING A LINE OF CREDIT BALANCE TO A CASH ACCOUNT; US 8,589,294 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/39; 20 claims; assigned to American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

Relating generally to facilitating automated electronic funds transfers from lines of credit to deposit accounts, and more particularly, to a system and method for customer management of credit line funds transfers whereby transfer requests may be processed through an automated clearinghouse, depositing funds into a variety of different accounts and debiting a customer's credit lines.

Frip: Did you know that the first charge cards were issued around 1950 by Amex and Diners Club?

TRANSFER ACCOUNT SYSTEMS, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS, AND ASSOCIATED COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHODS; US 8,589,295 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/40; 20 claims; assigned to Metabank.

Relating to systems, computer program products, and associated computer-implemented methods of providing prioritized payments from proceeds of automatic deposits, the list of possible embodiments being quite impressive.

Frip: Really, Metabank is cornering the prioritized payments market.

MULTI-STAGE FILTERING FOR FRAUD DETECTION WITH VELOCITY FILTERS; US 8,589,298 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/44; 44 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing a multi-stage filtering process and system for fraud detection, the process including one or more preliminary filtration stages followed by one or more additional filtration stages that may include velocity filters that provide for enhanced screening for fraudulent activity, a portion of the transactions being cleared for processing after each filtration stage.

Frip: BofA don’t like fraud.

FINANCIAL SERVICE INVOLVING COVERAGE NETWORK; US 8,589,299 B2; 11/19/2013; Class 705/44; 26 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Providing, in some embodiments, a method that includes: (a) receiving transaction information associated with a transaction, where the transaction involves an account and a holder of the account; (b) determining that the account does not have enough available funds or credit to cover the transaction amount; (c) prompting a member of a coverage network to consent to covering at least part of the transaction amount; (d) receiving the member's consent to covering at least part of the transaction amount; and (e) authorizing the transaction based at least partially on the receiving the member's consent.

Frip: Are you your neighbor’s keeper?

November 26, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYMETHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING INTERNET PAYMENTS USING THE ELECTRONIC FUNDS TRANSFER NETWORK; US 8,595,083 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/26.1; 24 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association.

Representing a new paradigm for effectuating electronic payments that leverages existing platforms, conventional payment infrastructures, and currently available web-based technology to enable e-commerce in both the virtual and physical marketplace, the concept allowing consumers to shop on the Internet, pay bills, and pay anyone virtually anywhere, all without the consumer having to share account number information with the payee, merchants receiving immediate payment confirmation through the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) network.

Frip: A “new paradigm.” Cool.

FRAMEWORK FOR INTEGRATED STORAGE OF BANKING APPLICATION DATA; US 8,595,095 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/35; 12 claims; assigned to SAP AG (Germany).

Providing a data management framework allowing for the generalized storage and subsequent access of resulting data, the framework removing proprietary restrictions on the data itself and thus making it available to other applications, thereby increasing cross-system efficiency.

Frip: SAP, doing its back-office thing.

INTER-NETWORK FINANCIAL SERVICE; US 8,595,100 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/35; 33 claims; assigned to Checkfree Services Corporation.

Disclosing a technique for making inter-network payments, and more specifically, a technique whereby a payment request generated in one multiple payment network is completed by a second payment network. Frip: He ain’t heavy, he’s my bro.

INSURED DEPOSIT NOTE PROGRAM; US 8,595,102 B1; 11/26/2013; Class 705/35; 19 claims; assigned to New Affinity Concepts Corp.

Providing processes to appropriately structure, control, and manage the distribution of large deposits from investors to multiple financial institutions so that all of the investors' deposits are guaranteed federal deposit insurance, the structure having the optional feature of enabling investors and financial institutions to designate a portion of interest earned on the deposits to be donated to one or more charitable organizations.

Frip: Another competitor in the game to tweak the FDIC’s nose.

DEPLOYMENT AND RELEASE COMPONENT SYSTEM; US 8,595,103 B1; 11/26/2013; Class 705/35; 27 claims; assigned to Accenture Global Services Limited (Ireland).

Providing business users the use a network-based system to deploy a package manifest for a product offering such as an insurance product offering based upon reusable components, the insurance product offering maybe being a new product offering developed using at least some reusable components of insurance product offerings stored in a component library.

Frip: “Reusable components of insurance product offerings.” Put another way, the PTO has granted a patent on words.

HIGH SPEED PROCESSING OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION USING FPGA DEVICES; US 8,595,104 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/35; 30 claims; assigned to IP Reservoir, LLC.

In an exemplary embodiment, storing a plurality of records for a plurality of financial instruments, receiving financial market data messages, retrieving from the record memory the records for the messages' associated financial instruments, and processing each received financial market data message to update the record for the financial instrument associated with that message, wherein each record comprises an interest list that identifies whether any of a plurality of entities have expressed an interest in being notified of data relating to the updated record.

Frip: In case you don’t know computerize, FGPA is Field Programmable Gate Array. Helpful?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETECTING FRAUDULENT FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS; US 8,595,106 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/35; 16 claims.

Having an Internet service provider use virtual machines dedicated to one (or a few) customers to perform transactions on behalf of those customers, the transactions requiring sensitive or confidential user authentication data, each machine only having access to the user authentication data it needs to perform the transactions for its dedicated customers, not authentication data for all the customers of the service provider, the virtual machines being shut down when not performing transactions or interacting with customers.

Frip: Can you buy one of these virtual machines?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SECURITIZING A COMMODITY; US 8,595,109 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/35; 6 claims; assigned to The Bank of New York Mellon.

Creating trust shares in a physical commodity, the trust shares being tradable over an electronic communications network, the method comprising the receipt of a creation for the trust shares, the confirmation of delivery into a trust account of an amount of the physical commodity, and the release of the requested trust shares based upon the amount of physical commodity delivered into the account.

Frip: Never been done before?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REGULATING ORDER ENTRY IN AN ELECTRONIC TRADING ENVIRONMENT; US 8,595,111 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/35; 11 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Defining slop parameters to an individual spread order or a customized group of orders, the system and method being used to, for example, define inside slop, outside slop, and/or adjustable range parameters to one or more orders, and other slop stuff.

Frip: Love that slop!SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SETTING UP AND MANAGING RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS OF ETFS AND INDEX MUTUAL FUNDS; US 8,595,116 B1; 11/26/2013; Class 705/36; 12 claims; assigned to Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.

Using a record keeping system, broker-dealer system, and a bank system to provide retirement accounts that include one or more ETFs, or other index funds such as index mutual funds in one or more plans, an asset allocator defining the investment options under each plan.

Frip: Charlie Schwab, ain’t seen you in these pages in a month of Sundays.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING FINANCIAL SERVICES; US 8,595,112 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/36R; 9 claims; assigned to The Bank of New York Mellon.

Providing banking and investment services to hedge fund money managers and other customers without the assistance or need for a prime broker, the money manager recipients of such services being able at the same time to pursue investment opportunities with the providing bank or financial institution and other banks, institutions, and brokerages, in some cases the intraday liquidity necessary to provide these products not having to be reflected on the balance sheet of the providing financial institution. Frip: A patent on avoiding transparency?

METHODS FOR MANAGING A MEDICAL EVENT; US 8,595,115 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims.

Directed to a system and method for the creation of financial products and inventory optimization, the financial products including repurchase agreements and reverse repurchase agreements, warehouse receipts, futures, forwards, options, structured notes, indices, securities, options, and swaps, particularly mesoeconomic and macroeconomic swaps.

Frip: There certainly is a crying need for mesoeconomic swaps.

SINGLE PREMIUM IMMEDIATE ANNUITY WITH ADJUSTABLE PAYMENT; US 8,595,117 B1; 11/26/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; assigned to USAA.

Providing an annuity comprising a fluctuating annuity payment and an option to fix the fluctuating annuity payment and setting a payment schedule for the fluctuating annuity payment.

Frip: Patent on an intangible financial product. Where will it end?

SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE FOR TRADE MATCHING; US 8,595,119 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Providing a symbolic modeling language for trade matching that has techniques to describe the specialized operations of a match engine in a form that can be understood by business analysts and readily translated into program code and test cases by developers and testers, the techniques including means for calculating implied markets and testing that can expedite match engine development, testing, and maintenance.

Frip: Moving the market one more step from Joe Sixpack?

MIDPRICE TRADING WITHIN A SPREAD MARKET; US 8,595,121 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/37; 21 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Providing a system and method to allow traders to submit midprice orders to trade at a price within a spread of a market, preferably at the midpoint of a spread market, while maintaining anonymity of the midprice order.

Frip: Are the markets against transparency?

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MATCHING SHORT TRADING POSITIONS WITH LONG TRADING POSITIONS; US 8,595,124 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Providing a system and method for automatically matching short and long positions of participants and automatically generating repurchase agreements and reverse repurchase agreements, the system and method providing trading anonymity and various filtering options for the members.

Frip: More Goldman employees out on the street. Wall Street, that is.

TRADE ORDER SUBMISSION FOR ELECTRONIC TRADING; US 8,595,127 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/37; 9 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Initiating a first thread of instructions at a computing device to send a first trade order onto an electronic exchange, but if one or more trade orders are identified during the process, the one or more orders are queued, after which the first trade order is sent to the electronic exchange, followed by the initiation of a second thread of instructions to send the queued one or more trade orders (substantially together, if there is more than one) to the electronic exchange.

Frip: Is trading really that complex?

MODIFIABLE MORTGAGE; US 8,595,130 B2; 11/26/2013; Class 705/38; 24 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Storing, in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, one or more terms of an exercisable option, where the option is incorporated into a mortgage loan, where exercising the option results in one or more terms of the mortgage loan being modified, and where one or more terms of the option are based at least partially on a non-mortgage relationship between a borrower associated with the mortgage loan and a lender associated with the mortgage loan.

Frip: BofA is well along on its quest to patent everything it does.

December 3, 2013

PATENT SUMMARY

METHOD, SOFTWARE PROGRAM, AND SYSTEM FOR STRUCTURING RISK IN A FINANCIAL TRANSACTION; US 8,600,781 B2; 12/3/2013; Class 705/4; 19 claims; assigned to The BondFactor Company LLC.

Establishing an insuring debt related to an insured debt of a debtor based on an insured debt amount representing at least a proportion of the insured debt, allocating, in a computer memory associated with an insuring trust, a first loss class and a second loss class, and routing a payment payable from the insuring debt to a first class holder in the first class, wherein the first class holder is entitled to the payment based on a debt to the first class holder of an insuring fund of the insuring trust, and wherein the insuring fund is for insuring an obligation to make payments for the insured debt.

Frip: If you read it enough times, it probably makes sense.

UNIVERSAL CARTRIDGE FOR DIFFERENT CASH RECYCLERS; US 8,600,842 B1; 12/3/2013; Class 705/28; 19 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Determining that a cash handling device requires replenishment of funds or removal of funds, preparing a cartridge with funds for replenishment (if the cash handling device is lacking) or an empty cartridge (if the cash handling device is full), replacing the cartridge within the cash handling device with the prepared cartridge, and accounting for what has just happened.

Frip: BofA might next be patenting the procedure for employee bathroom breaks.

METHOD FOR STRUCTURING A TRANSACTION; US 8,600,853 B2; 12/3/2013; Class 705/35; 34 claims; assigned to Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Structuring a transaction by, in one embodiment, obligating an agent to act between a first party and a second party; obligating the first party to sell a security to the second party, obligating the second party to pay an in-lieu-of dividend to the first party, periodically marking the security sold by the first party to market, and obligating the first party and the second party to unwind the sale of the security. Frip: Wow! A patent on two parties entering into a transaction.

HIGH SPEED PROCESSING OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION USING FPGA DEVICES; US 8,600,856 B2; 12/3/2013; Class 705/35; 34 claims; assigned to IP Reservoir, LLC.

Processing financial market data using a reconfigurable logic device, various operations such as basket calculation and volume weighted average price (VWAP) operations being performed on the financial market data using firmware logic deployed on the reconfigurable logic device to accelerate the speed of processing.

Frip: Markets want more SPEED!AUTOMATIC TRADING SYSTEM WITH COMPUTER AIDED DECISION-METHODS OF WHEN TO BUY AND SELL ON STOCK EXCHANGES; US 8,600,859 B2; 12/3/2013; Class 705/36R; 20 claims.

Relating to an automatic trading system with computer aided decision-methods of when to buy and sell on stock exchanges, the system including a method to format a data stream providing a novel result used for the calculation of technical indicators and the derived criteria, and also used for visual presentation of price movements of the tradable product in the computerized trading system by determining the time to close a bar.

Frip: That’s a bar in the trading system, not your neighborhood bar.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ETF INVESTING; US RE44,625 E1; 12/3/2013; Class 705/36R; 44 claims; assigned to State Street Corporation.

Providing a primary exchange traded fund (PETF) comprising a plurality of shares, wherein the PETF comprises investments in a plurality of secondary exchange traded funds (SETF).

Frip: A composite built on other composites. What could possibly go wrong?

DISCRETIONARY ORDER IN AN ELECTRONIC GUARANTEED ENTITLEMENT ENVIRONMENT; US 8,600,862 B2; 12/3/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to NYSE Group, Inc.

Providing an enhanced system and method for handling, matching, and executing discretionary orders in an electronic options environment, market maker entitlements being integrated with the discretionary order processing so that the market maker is guaranteed an allocation of the trade if the market maker is at the national best bid and offer (NBBO) when an incoming discretionary order priced at or better than the NBBO is received, and so much more.

Frip: Sounds like serious stuff.SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING UNIFIED TRADING AND CONTROL FOR A SPONSORING ORGANIZATION'S MONEY MANAGEMENT PROCESS; US 8,600,866 B2; 12/3/2013; Class 705/37; 22 claims; assigned to UAT, Inc.

Providing a unified trading and control system, method, process, software, and standards that simplify the sub-advisor (money manager) trading process, increase control over the trading process by a sponsoring organization, and substantially lower trading costs on a recurring basis for the shareholders and beneficiaries investing in the funds and investment portfolios.

Frip: Words, words, words.SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSIGNING RESPONSIBILITY FOR TRADE ORDER EXECUTION; US 8,600,867 B2; 12/3/2013; Class 705/37; 23 claims; assigned to UAT, Inc.

An embodiment provides a system and method for a sponsoring organization to (1) utilize a rules-based computer system to capture trade orders from sub-advisors in order to implement a pre-trade compliance review process, and (2) determine and assign, based on expected market impact of a trade order to buy or sell securities, whether responsibility for executing the trade order is assigned to the money management firm for an investment portfolio or to the sponsoring organization of that portfolio, trade orders being categorized in real-time as "high touch" (significant effort and market impact) or "low touch" (insignificant effort and market impact).

Frip: And some more words.

CREDIT AND PREPAID FINANCIAL CARD; US 8,600,871 B1; 12/3/2013; Class 705/38; 18 claims; assigned to USAA.

Issuing a financial card that is set to behave like a prepaid card as the card can only have a positive balance, the card being convertible at the user’s option to a credit card, and vice versa (card issued as a credit card but convertible to a prepaid card).

Frip: And the need for this stems from. . . .

SYSTEMS, APPROACHES AND METHODS INVOLVING DEFERRING DEBIT PAYMENT FOR DEBIT-CARD TRANSACTIONS; US 8,600,891 B2; 12/3/2013; Class 705/44; 63 claims; assigned to TCF Financial Corporation.

Managing a financial institution account with a transaction card used as a deferred-debit transaction card and as an automated banking card wherein debit transactions are stored by a managing computer system for a billing cycle without being automatically debited against the account until after debit transaction activity.

Frip: Too many cards in the ol’ wallet already.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR BACK OFFICE PROCESSING OF BANKING TRANSACTIONS USING ELECTRONIC FILES; US 8,600,893 B2; 12/3/2013; Class 705/45; 35 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association.

Relating generally to systems and methods for back office processing of bank transactions and more particularly to a system and method that electronically captures transaction information at the time of execution of the transaction and uses this electronic information during the back office processing.

Frip: Is this one big patent that covers back office processing in total, or just one of many components to ultimately preempt the back office field?

ELECTRONIC PAYMENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS UTILIZING DIGITALLY ORIGINATED CHECKS; US 8,600,898 B2; 12/3/2013; Class 705/53; 19 claims; assigned to Global Standard Financial, Inc.

Providing a digitally originated check (DOC) through an electronic payment system (EPS) that captures payor metadata instructions regarding the intended payment to a payee, the metadata being stored in a database or the like for further processing instead of printing a paper check.

Frip: Metadata. Some Congressional Committee ought to investigate metadata before we’re all reduced to digits.

December 10, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYSYSTEM FOR MANAGING AND TRACKING AN INVENTORY OF ELEMENTS; US 8,606,615 B2; 12/10/2013; Class 705/7.27; 21 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to methods, systems, apparatus, and computer program products for managing and tracking an inventory of controlled elements, such as a business’ policies, procedures, and training programs, to map the relationships between the elements and ensure changes made to any element are correctly adopted and incorporated into all related elements.

Frip: When will BofA be finished with its patent stampede?

SYSTEM SUPPORTING AUTOMATED CLEARING HOUSE (ACH) FEATURES; US 8,606,661 B2; 12/10/2013; Class 705/30; 36 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Relating to techniques for supporting an automated clearing house system (ACH) for facilitating resolution of ACH transactions, one tool being the pausing of an associated transaction when a transaction item is blocked for an account, the paused associated transaction being presented to the client for indications of acceptance or rejection, and more.

Frip: Couldn’t just write an SOP for this?

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MANAGING CO-BRAND PROPRIETARY FINANCIAL TRANSACTION PROCESSING; US 8,606,662 B2; 12/10/2013; Class 705/30; 35 claims; assigned to MasterCard International Incorporated.

Relating generally to processing transactions associated with financial transaction card accounts and, more particularly, to network-based methods and systems for processing financial transactions using a co-brand proprietary financial transaction card through a multi-party payment card interchange and identifying whether the transaction should be processed as a proprietary private label transaction or as a network branded transaction. Frip: Where does the common credit card fall on this spectrum of jargon?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ACQUIRING TAX DATA FOR USE IN TAX PREPARATION SOFTWARE; US 8,606,665 B1; 12/10/2013; Class 705/31; 18 claims; assigned to HRB Tax Group, Inc.

Acquiring tax data electronically by scanning, faxing, or email, and importing the data into tax preparation software.

Frip: A patent on faxing? And anyway, who faxes stuff anymore?

PARALLEL AVAILABILITY CONTROL CHECKS IN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; US 8,606,668 B2; 12/10/2013; Class 705/35; 5 claims; assigned to SAP AG (Germany).

Providing a rule array for an online Availability Control (AVC) system that permits an entirely flexible definition of multiple AVC checks, the rule array containing one or several independent rule sets, each rule set maybe including a plurality of control objects that address nodes of a budget data structure, control objects typically being assigned to various units within an organization and also across other dimensions, the rule sets addressing arbitrarily assigned control objects, the upshot being that it becomes possible to activate different rule sets in parallel to check an individual input data record against multiple budgetary requirements defined for the organization.

Frip: I’ll take your word for it.SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ALLOCATING EXCESS FUNDS IN CONTROL ACCOUNT; US 8,606,676 B1; 12/10/2013; Class 705/35; 21 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Disclosing a method for managing a plurality of FDIC-insured and interest-bearing aggregated accounts held in a plurality of deposit institutions, with each of the deposit institutions holding at least one of the aggregated accounts, each of the aggregated accounts holding funds of a plurality of client accounts.

Frip: Hey FDIC, insure this!DIFFERENTIAL COMMISSION AND ELECTRONIC ORDER MATCHING PROCESS FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF PRIMARY MARKET FIXED INCOME SECURITIES; US 8,606,677 B2; 12/10/2013; Class 705/36R; 6 claims; assigned to PriMuni LLC.

Relating to a method of matching buyers, particular buyers of smaller amounts, and sellers of fixed income securities at different prices and commissions for like maturities, specifically, but not exclusively, municipal bonds, over electronic networks, specifically, but not exclusively, the Internet.

Frip: Trading securities over the Internets. Is that even legal?

METHOD FOR TRADING AND CLEARING VARIANCE SWAPS; US 8,606,680 B2; 12/10/2013; Class 705/36R; 19 claims; assigned to DRW Innovations, LLC.

Providing a method for trading and clearing a volatility or variance-defined, standardized derivative financial instrument, the method resulting in a financial instrument negotiated in either volatility or variance terms being substituted with an equivalent position in a standardized, centrally-cleared financial instrument.

Frip: Oookay.COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED SECURITIES TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,606,685 B2; 12/10/2013; Class 705/37; 34 claims; assigned to CFPH, LLC.

Providing for the trading of securities via a network using virtual currency, a server computer receiving buy and sell orders for derivative financial instruments from a plurality of client computers, the server computer attempting to match the buy and sell orders and then generating a market price, the virtual currency accumulated by account holders as a result of successful trading being convertible to another currency, credited toward the cost of merchandise provided through a vendor's web site, and more.

Frip: So, computers are running the show with humans standing on the sidelines?

MODIFICATION OF MULTI-LATERALLY TRADED CONTRACTS BASED ON CURRENCY UNAVAILABILITY CONDITION; US 8,606,687 B2; 12/10/2013; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Providing a type of multi-laterally traded contract designating a primary currency and a secondary currency, the primary currency being used for settlement or other payment obligations in connection with instances of the contract type, the secondary currency being used, under certain conditions, for settlement or payment of at least some obligations using an equivalent amount of the secondary currency.

Frip: Is running out of a currency the same as running out of money?

SYSTEM AND METHOD OF IMPLEMENTING MASSIVE EARLY TERMINATIONS OF LONG TERM FINANCIAL CONTRACTS; US 8,606,688 B2; 12/10/2013; Class 705/37; 15 claims; assigned to TriOptima AB (Sweden).

Significantly decreasing the number of outstanding financial derivative transactions between counterparties with the aim of lowering the gross and net credit exposure between counterparties, lowering operational costs and risks, and enhancing risk-control for each counterparty, the system achieving these desirable results by a process of collecting trade data from institutions, linking together different versions of the same trade, grouping together potential combinations of transactions having a low or zero risk, calculating the aggregated value of each group of transactions, and thereafter selecting the group having the best aggregated value for execution or assignment, namely the group best meeting the party-specified tolerances for the termination or assignment.

Frip: Once we’ve netted out all the buyers and sellers, nobody owes anybody anything. It was all a house of cards.

SYSTEMS, METHODS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR MANAGING PAYMENT PROCESSES IN A COMPREHENSIVE PAYMENT HUB SYSTEM; US 8,606,705 B2; 12/10/2013; Class 705/40; 36 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation.

Managing the processing of a financial payment and, more specifically, managing the processing of a financial payment in a comprehensive payment hub environment that provides for payment processing, including payment route determination, irrespective of the payment input channel.

Frip: Just throw all your backoffice stuff in one patent application.

COMPUTER IMPLEMENTED METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING MONEY; US 8,606,713 B1; 12/10/2013; Class 705/42; 23 claims; assigned to Ledder High Risk Capital Ventures, LP.

Providing a method for accumulating money using a client device, server, and network by presenting a user interface, creating a user profile, forming an account for accumulating money linked to another account, enabling the user to input goals, and enabling the user to make and receive deposits into the account for accumulating money, the method including appropriate prompts to the client.

Frip: Patent on a bank?

FLEXIBLE ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT FOR CUSTOMER TRANSACTIONS AND OVERDRAFTS; US 8,606,714 B1; 12/10/2013; Class 705/44; 15 claims; assigned to U.S. Bank National Association.

Relating to integrated financial network systems and more particularly pertains to a computer system designed to provide communications and processing for an overdraft protection program.

Frip: Silly me. I thought overdrafts were illegal, or at least frowned upon.

December 17, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE AUTOMATED BROKERAGE OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS; US 8,612,321 B2; 12/17/2013; Class 705/35; 10 claims; assigned to Scottrade, Inc.

Relating to an automated electronic system for processing orders from investors for transactions of financial instruments and supplying financial account information to investors.

Frip: Nothing new under the sun?

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ADMINISTERING RETURN SWEEP ACCOUNTS; US 8,612,324 B1; 12/17/2013; Class 705/35; 13 claims; assigned to Island Intellectual Property LLC.

Managing a plurality of client demand accounts so as to allow a banking institution to retain client deposits on the bank's balance sheets while, at the same time, providing the client with the capability of implementing up to an unlimited number of transactions per month and also providing the client with interest on the account balance, these objectives being achieved through the use of an aggregate money market deposit account and an aggregate demand deposit account.

Frip: The FDIC don’t have a chance.

METHOD AND PLATFORM FOR FACILITATING COMPETITIVE VIRTUAL SECURITIES TRADING; US 8,612,328 B2; 12/17/2013; Class 705/37; 22 claims.

Providing a trading platform over the Internet or other network that allows users to participate in competitive virtual trading of securities and derivatives, wherein the monetary returns of the participants are based on their relative performances. Frip: If you’re over 60, the word “virtual” likely has no meaning for you.

PREDICTION MARKET SYSTEM AND METHODS; US 8,612,331 B2; 12/17/2013; Class 705/37; 13 claims; assigned to Consensus Point, Inc.

Directed to methods for operating a prediction market to find disagreement among participants, to methods for operating a prediction market using a liquidity management process, and toward a user interface that facilitates investing in a prediction market.

Frip: You need a patent to find disagreement among us argumentative human animals?!

FINANCIAL PRODUCTS BASED ON A SERIALIZED INDEX; US 8,612,336 B2; 12/17/2013; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to IntercontinentalExchange, Inc.

Listing via one or more computing devices a financial instrument, said financial instrument specifying which version of a serialized index the financial instrument tracks, receiving at an electronic financial exchange an electronic indication to buy or sell the financial instrument, the exchange executing the trade, and settling the financial instrument according to the version of the serialized index specified by the financial instrument, the version being created after the trade is executed.

Frip: If you don’t understand the demand for this, you don’t understand squat.

MAPPING AN OVER THE COUNTER TRADE INTO A CLEARING HOUSE; US 8,612,337 B1; 12/17/2013; Class 705/37; 4 claims; assigned to ICAP North America, Inc.

Providing a method in a computerized system for conversion of OTC FX positions from one or more OTC platforms into standardized futures contracts processable at a traditional futures clearing house, each OTC FX position having a value date.

Frip: Head hurt.SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR BUSINESS ONLINE ACCOUNT OPENING; US 8,612,339 B2; 12/17/2013; Class 705/38; 24 claims; assigned to Branch Banking & Trust Company.

Providing a system and method for a business customer interfacing with a financial institution through a computer network, the method including a determination of whether the customer is an on-line client of the financial institution, a verification of customer-provided information with a pre-existing client identification profile for the customer, a determination of whether the customer is a sole proprietorship, a determination of the customer's credit score using a set of predetermined criteria, and the presentation of a set of account options based at least in part on the verification of the customer-provided information and the customer's credit score.

Frip: What’s to complain about?COMPUTERIZED FUNDING OF A SECOND FINANCIAL ACCOUNT BY A FIRST FINANCIAL CARD; US 8,612,341 B2; 12/17/2013; Class 705/39; 6 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Establishing a card payment instrument account for an approved customer and an investment account for the benefit of the approved customer, periodically calculating a rebate based on credit card usage, and applying the rebate to fund the investment account periodically.

Frip: What?! JP givin’ a rebate?! Holy Guacamole!

CLOUD COMPUTING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING MONEY; US 8,612,349 B1; 12/17/2013; Class 705/42; 24 claims; assigned to Ledder High Risk Capital Ventures, LP.

Providing a cloud data storage containing computer instructions for presenting a user interface, creating a user profile, forming an account for accumulating money linked to another account, enabling the user to input goals, and enabling the user to make and receive deposits into the account for accumulating money.

Frip: Great place for your money, The Cloud.

December 24, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYFIXED RATE FINANCING INSTRUMENT OFFERING A DIVIDEND OR PARTIALLY GUARANTEED BY THIRD PARTY TO ISSUANCE, METHOD FOR ESTABLISHING A MARKET FOR THE SAME, METHOD FOR DIRECTLY PUBLIC-OFFERING THE SAME ON-LINE; US 8,615,453 B2; 12/24/2013; Class 705/35; 18 claims.

Relating to fixed rate financing instruments issued for acquiring private funds and investments, offering a dividend or partially guaranteed by third parties to issuance, the invention being also related to systems, servers, methods, programs, and computer-readable recording media for establishing a market for the fixed rate financing instruments, and to a method for directly offering the fixed rate financing instruments on-line, and in particular, the financing instruments being designed to attract private funds and investments to finance public works or projects, such as infrastructure improvement projects.

Frip: And the investor floodgates swung open!

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE AUTOMATED BROKERAGE OF FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS; US 8,615,454 B2; 12/24/2013; Class 705/35; 18 claims; assigned to Scottrade, Inc.

Disclosing an automated financial instrument brokerage system wherein a front end layer interacts with customers to generate activity requests for an intermediate layer that processes the activity requests and places financial instrument orders on a financial market if appropriate, with a backend layer providing data to the intermediate layer for processing activity requests. Frip: Yes! Finally a full-fledged automated brokerage (and more brokers out of work).

SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR PROCESSING OPEN-END MUTUAL FUND PURCHASE AND REDEMPTION ORDERS AT CENTRALIZED SECURITIES EXCHANGES AND OTHER SECURITIES TRADING AND PROCESSING PLATFORMS; US 8,615,461 B2; 12/24/2013; Class 705/37; 23 claims.

Relating to placing orders for the purchase and redemption of shares of any participating open-end mutual fund by any customer of any Member Firm of a Securities Exchange, or ordering participants of an Electronic Communications Network or alternative trading system ELF market for end of the day, periodic, or continuous (real-time) processing, clearing, and settlement at the fund's Net Asset Value, or clearing price, via a centralized securities Exchange or other such securities trading or processing platform with connectivity to participating brokerage firms and Member Firms. Frip: Huh?

GLOBAL ELECTRONIC TRADING SYSTEM; US 8,615,462 B2; 12/24/2013; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to Setec Astronomy Limited, (Bermuda).

Providing methods, systems, and computer readable media for facilitating trading two items from the group of items comprising commodities and financial instruments.

Frip: No prior art? Really?

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING A DYNAMIC CARD VALUE; US 8,615,468 B2; 12/24/2013; Class 705/44; 20 claims; assigned to CA, Inc.

Providing a method and system for generating a dynamic card value (DCV) from a mobile user device for use in a transaction between a user cardholder and a transaction provider, the DCV being configured for use as a card verification value (CVV), also known as a card security code (CSC), a primary account number (PAN), or a portion of a PAN.

Frip: Why not just refrain from using your mobile device to buy stuff?

December 31, 2013

PATENT SUMMARYSYSTEM FOR PROVIDING AN ONLINE ACCOUNT STATEMENT HAVING HYPERLINKS; US 8,620,757 B2; 12/31/2013; Class 705/26.1; 21 claims; assigned to Bank of America, National Association.

Relating generally to an Internet web site providing an online account statement web page having hyperlinks, and especially having hyperlinked special offer indicia for a special offer related to a transaction entry on the online account statement.

Frip: And you think the NSA is out of control.

METHOD OF BROKERING TAX LIENS; US 8,620,791 B1; 12/31/2013; Class 705/36R; 4 claims.

Directed to a method of turning a liability (unpaid taxes) into a marketable asset and securing financing based on the collective value of such assets.

Frip: Well, why not?SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING A FUTURES/FORWARD TRADABLE MARKET AND BIDDED PRICE NEGOTIATION FOR INTERNET ADVERTISING; US 8,620,795 B2; 12/31/2013; Class 705/37; 3 claims.

Relating to an on-line system for connecting and automating processes openly between purchasers and sellers of advertising space that enables the creation of a transparent, tradable, futures or forward market for advertising space. Frip: Could you get a patent of creating a market for spouse swapping? Just asking.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR STREAMLINED PURCHASING; US 8,620,797 B1; 12/31/2013; Class 705/38; 18 claims; assigned to USAA.

Receiving application to finance an item, approving the application, and providing a financial document to the customer, the process requiring no further interaction between the customer and the lending institution, an alternative being receiving a pre-approved financial instrument from a merchant and processing the instrument, which was presented to the merchant by a customer and executed at the time of purchase without further interaction between the customer and the lending institution.

Frip: Great. An easier way to create debt.

UNIVERSAL LEDGER; US 8,620,799 B2; 12/31/2013; Class 705/38; 17 claims; assigned to The Western Union Company.

Providing systems and methods for tracking obligations incurred between individuals who may be associated with a social network service, the obligations often arising from informal agreements such as indicating a willingness to reimburse a co-worker for buying lunch.

Frip: How the mighty have fallen. At one time, Western Union was the nation’s big cheese. Now it’s patenting how to keep track of who picks up the check.

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FUNDING A COLLECTIVE ACCOUNT; US 8,620,808 B1; 12/31/2013; Class 705/41; 12 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Providing a system and method for funding a collective account such as a charitable account, the method including issuing a plurality of financial instruments, linking the financial instruments to the collective account, aggregating individual financial instrument usage, calculating a bonus or other reward based on the aggregate financial instrument usage, and funding or distributing the reward to the collective account.

Frip: Ain’t that swell of JP, to be thinking of charities?