Last Thursday the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published 359 patent applications from Apple. Over and above reporting on a few individual inventions such as an Apple Watch band with a built-in display, we also uncovered Apple trends for a solid-state battery, home automation and indoor mapping. In this last report covering last week's patent applications we uncover 12 patent applications related to Apple Pay systems and Apple Pay ready devices such as Apple Watch and the iPhone-6 family. For those in financial circles or simply those who are curious, here are Apple's 12 patent pending inventions related to Apple Pay that were published last week:

Apple Patent Application 20150348009 titled User Device Access to Payment Information in Response to Mechanical Input Detection:

Apple's invention generally relates to a device with a secure element that detects a mechanical input corresponding to a payment instruction and that transmits payment information in response to the detection. Apple covers NFC, point-of-sale terminals and various accounts it will work with such as credit, debit, store-value cares, and transit cards. See Apple's Patent filing for more.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 shows an example of an electronic device communicating with a point of sale (POS) terminal; FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a user device.

Apple Patent Application 20150348007 titled Apparatuses and Methods for Operating a Portable Electronic Device to Conduct Mobile Payment Transactions:

Apple's patent covers apparatuses and methods for operating a portable electronic device to conduct mobile payment transactions are provided.

Apple's patent pending invention further covers electronic devices such as the Apple Watch and iPhone, that may include a secure element and a processor that communicates with the secure element. The electronic device may be configured to receive a payment initiation input from a user. In response to receiving the payment initiation input, the secure element may be used to send a notification to the processor indicating that the payment initiation input has been received from the user. Thereafter, the secure element may be used to communicate with the processor to temporarily activate the secure element for payment.

In accordance with another embodiment, the portable electronic device may include a secure element for securely storing commerce credentials, an applications processor that is configured to communicate with the secure element via a secure channel, and input-output devices for interfacing with a user of the device. The secure element may have an associated secure element identifier (SEID). See apple's Patent filing for more.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 is a diagram of an illustrative system for in which one or more user devices can be used to perform mobile payment transactions; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of illustrative circuitry in the secondary user device.

Apple Patent Application 20150347859 titled Credit Card Auto-Fill:

Differing embodiments of the patent filing may employ one or all of the several techniques to perform credit card recognition using electronic devices with integrated cameras. According to some embodiments, the credit card recognition process may comprise: obtaining a first representation of a first image, wherein the first representation comprises a first plurality of pixels; identifying a first credit card region within the first representation; extracting a first plurality of sub-regions from within the identified first credit card region, wherein a first sub-region comprises a credit card number, wherein a second sub-region comprises an expiration date, and wherein a third sub-region comprises a card holder name; generating a predicted character sequence for the first, second, and third sub-regions; and validating the predicted character sequences for at least the first, second, and third sub-regions using various credit card-related heuristics, e.g., expected character sequence length, expected character sequence format, and checksums. See Apple's Patent filing for more.

Apple patent application 20150348002 titled User Interface for Payments:

Apple's invention relates to making payments with a mobile device. In one example process, the mobile device receives and stores information for one or more payment accounts on the mobile device. The mobile device is used to make payments using the payment accounts. In some examples, authorization to proceed with a payment is performed before each purchase made by the user. The authorization process can include receiving a verification of the user, such as a fingerprint scan or passcode. In some examples, a payment account is selected from among available payment accounts. In some examples, an indication is displayed of a digital item associated with a purchased item. In some examples, a payment transaction is initiated with participants of an ongoing communication. In some examples, an application of a retailer is invoked based on the availability of the application. In some examples, a purchase recommendation is provided. See Apple's Patent filing for more.

Apple's patent FIG. 7B illustrates an exemplary technique for proceeding with a payment transaction using a short-range communication radio, such as a NFC radio; FIG. 7C illustrates an exemplary user interface for authorizing the device in order to proceed with the payment transaction.

The Other Apple Pay Related Patent Applications Published on 3/9/2015

20150348014 User Interface for Payments

20150348029 User Interface for Payments

20150348001 User Interface for Payments

20150348000 Financial-Transaction Notifications

20150347996 Shared Purchases

20150348025 Apparatuses and Methods for Using a Primary User Device to Provision Credentials onto a Secondary User Device

20150348022 Apparatuses and Methods for Using a Random Authorization Number to Provide Enhanced Security for a Secure Element

20150348008: Apparatuses and Methods for Managing Payment Applets on a Secure Element to Conduct Mobile Payment Transactions

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